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HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON - CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 




Elephant in Uganda 



Frontispiece. 



This elephant was one of a herd of about a hundred, all of which were close round 
him in the bush although invisible to the camera. 



HUNTING 

THE ELEPHANT 

IN AFRICA 

AND OTHER RECOLLECTIONS OF 
THIRTEEN YEARS' WANDERINGS 



BY 
CAPTAIN c!'h. STIGAND 

F.R.G.S., F.Z.S. 

AUTHOR OF "THE GAME OF EAST AFRICA," 
"THE LAND OF ZINJ," ETC. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



Nciri g0rk 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

^11 rights reserved 






Copyright, 1913, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1913. 



J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



i.C 



©CI.A354552 



FOREWORD 

For three-quarters of a century there have been 
capital books written on big game hunting in Africa, — 
one of the best being the earhest, that by Captain 
CornwaUis Harris. Of course the only type of big 
game hunter who can write a book really worth reading 
is the hunter who is also at least to a certain extent 
an out-of-doors naturalist. In addition, he should 
thoroughly enjoy the strange desolate scenery of the 
African wilderness, and have a sympathetic under- 
standing of the wild men who accompany him on most 
of his hunts. More and more of late years the best 
t3^e of big game hunter has tended to lay stress on 
the natural history and ethnology of the regions into 
which he has penetrated, and to make his book less 
and less a catalogue of mere slaughter. 

Captain Stigand is one of the most noted of 
recent African big game hunters and explorers, and 
he is also a field naturalist of unusual powers. His 
studies of the tracks of animals have been almost 
unique. The only studies approaching them are 
those about the tracks of the game of continental 
Europe, in the German hunting books of the sev- 
enteenth and eighteenth centuries. He has the 
keenest appreciation of the vivid and extraordinary 
beauty of the teeming African wild life, and has 



vi FOREWORD 



made close first-hand observations of the life histories 
of very many species of big game. In the past there 
have been many big game hunters who wrote overmuch 
of their own exploits, so that it becomes wearisome to 
read the endless lists of the animals that they killed. 
With Captain Stigand our quarrel is the direct reverse. 
He tells too little of his own achievements. He has, 
as I can myself testify, the reputation among all first- 
class African hunters of being himself one of the fore- 
most. He is equally fond of venturing into unknown 
regions and of the chase of dangerous game, and is an 
adept in the especially difiicult art of wood and bush 
tracking and stalking. Three times he has been nearly 
killed by his quarry: once by a rhinoceros, once by 
a lion, and once by an elephant. It is unfortunate that 
he will not give us more minute and extended accounts 
of his own personal adventures — one of the excellent 
features of the books of that other great African hunter 
Selous is that he does give such extended accounts of 
his personal experiences. But it is as difiicult to get 
Captain Stigand to tell what he has himself done as it 
was to get General Grant to talk about his battles. 
After this manuscript was in my hands, Captain Stigand 
was nearly killed by an elephant. It was in the Lado, 
and he was taken down to Khartoum ; but his letters 
to his friends at home touched so lightly on the sub- 
ject that they had to obtain all real information from 
outside sources. 



FOREWORD vii 



However, Captain Stigand more than makes up for 
this reticence about himself by the keenness and wide 
range of his observations about the life histories of the 
big game, and by his sympathetic and understanding 
appreciation of his native allies and companions. 
Modern biologists have grown to realize the prime 
scientific value of such first-hand field observations. 
There are but a limited number of men who combine 
the opportunity and the power to make these observa- 
tions about big game. In this limited number Captain 
Stigand stands high. 

Like Mr. Selous, Captain Stigand has made much 
field study of the subject of protective coloration as 
applied to big game. Scientific men are no more im- 
mune from hysteria and suggestion than other mortals, 
and every now and then there arises among them some 
fad which for quite a time carries even sane men off 
their feet. This has been the case with the latter-day 
development of the theories of protective coloration 
and of warning and recognition marks — but especially 
the first. Because some animals are undoubtedly 
protectively colored and take advantage of their color- 
ation and are served by it, a number of naturalists have 
carried the theory to fantastic extremes. They have 
applied it where it does not exist at all, and have en- 
deavored to extend it to a degree that has tended to 
make the whole theory ridiculous. Most good observ- 
ers are now agreed that in the higher vertebrates, that 



viii FOREWORD 



is, in mammals and birds, the coloration of probably the 
majority of the species has little or nothing to do with 
any protective or concealing quality. There are some 
hundreds of species which we can say with certainty 
are protectively colored; there are a great number 
which we can say with certainty are not protectively 
colored. As regards others we are still in doubt. 
There have not been sufficiently extensive observations 
made of wild animals under natural conditions to en- 
able us to speak with certainty as to just the part 
played by protective coloration among large numbers of 
the smaller mammals and birds. We are, however, 
able to speak with certainty as regards most big birds 
and especially most big mammals. 

Captain Stigand has shown that as regards most of 
the big game of Africa protective coloration plays not 
even the smallest part in concealing them from their 
foes. This is especially true of the animals of the plains, 
the giraffe, zebra, hartebeest, oryx, eland, roan and 
sable antelope, wildebeest, topi, gazelle, and the like. 
As to these animals we have a sufficient number of 
first-hand observations to warrant us in saying that the 
extreme theories of Professor Poulton and the Messrs. 
Thayer have no basis whatever in fact. It is much to 
be regretted that there are not more scientific writers 
with the clear scientific judgment displayed by Messrs. 
DeWar and Finn in their "Making of Species." 

The big game animals of the plains do not seek to 



FOREWORD ix 



elude observation and are not helped by their color 
in the struggle for life. It is astounding that some of 
the closet theorists who have written on this matter 
should have failed to understand what the conditions ac- 
tually are. For example, it has been seriously asserted 
that zebras, oryx, and the various plains antelope are 
protected by their colors at their drinking places. No 
such statement would ever have been made by any man 
who had ever seen these animals approach a drinking 
place. They make no attempt whatever to hide, and 
if they pay attention to cover at all, it is merely to avoid 
it, because it may hold their great enemy, the lion. 
They often come in great herds to drink. They are in 
motion of course — ■ otherwise they could not get down 
to drink — and anything in motion at once catches the 
eye of any beast hunter. They move forward, now at 
a walk, now at a trot ; halt, wheel, and run backwards ; 
and often do not come down to drink until there have 
been half a dozen such false alarms. Occasionally, 
especially if they suspect the presence of a foe, they 
make their final rush at furious speed, gulp the water 
hastily down, and rush off again. The coloring of the 
different species is infinitely varied, and this although 
they are living under precisely similar conditions. It 
is varied in some species even between the male and 
female, who live in the same herd. Yet those species 
like eland and roan antelope, whose general tint does 
often shade into the landscape, make no more effort to 



FOREWORD 



hide than such animals as the sable and the wildebeest, 
whose coloration is advertising in the highest degree. 
There is no reason to suppose that the species of one 
type are helped or the species of the other type harmed 
by their coloration. The coloration of the zebra, 
giraffe, and of many of the antelopes so far as it has 
any effect is of a revealing or advertising quality. Of 
course there are circumstances under which any type 
of coloration, no matter of what conceivable kind, is 
concealing ; but with most of the African big game the 
coloration must reveal them much more often than it 
conceals them ; nevertheless the circumstances of their 
lives are such that neither the revealing nor the con- 
cealing quality of the different coloration patterns 
has any effect upon the life of the species. 

Mr. Wallace does not go to the extremes of the ultra 
concealing coloration men. But in a recent volume 
he has strained the recognition mark theory to an im- 
possible point by claiming that the horns of certain 
African antelopes are useful as such recognition marks. 
He gives several pictures of these antelopes. In most 
of the species thus pictured only the adult males have 
the horns which he describes, and it can hardly be 
seriously contended that there has been a development 
of "recognition" marks to the exclusion of all of the 
animals of one sex and of half of the animals of another, 
including all the young. Among the species Mr. 
Wallace enumerates as having horns which serve as 



FOREWORD xi 



recognition marks are hartebeests. Now the harte- 
beests have relatively small and inconspicuous horns, 
whereas their bodily shape is unmistakable. They live 
under conditions which make it certain that they must 
see one another in the immense majority of cases at dis- 
tances such that their shape would identify them and 
their horns would not, and in the remaining cases they 
would be so near that they could not fail to identify 
one another even if they were absolutely hornless. 

When leaders of scientific thought develop theories 
of this kind it is natural that many good observers 
should be unconsciously influenced by the opinions 
of those to whom they had been trained to look up 
as authorities. In consequence, even good outdoors 
men have committed themselves to statements on this 
subject which will not stand investigation. It is one 
of the merits of Captain Stigand that he is among the 
observers who have set forth the facts so clearly as 
regards big game that there is now no excuse for 
further mistakes or misstatements in the matter. 

In short. Captain Stigand has written a book which 
ought to appeal to every believer in vigor and hardi- 
hood, to every lover of wilderness adventure, and to 
every man who values at their proper worth the ob- 
servations of an excellent field naturalist. 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Elephant Hunting i 

II. Native Trackers i8 

III. About Rhino 32 

IV. More Elephant Hunting 46 

V. Amongst the Madi 62 

VI. About Buffalo 80 

VII. African Rivers and Swamps 94 

VIII. Contrasts and Changes iii 

IX. About Lion 127 

X. Native Servants 153 

XI. Elephant Hunting in the Lugware Country . 171 

XII. Elephant Hunting in the Lugware Country 

{Continued') . . . . . . • .187 

XIII. The Happy Bantu 205 

XIV. Curious Hunting Incidents 226 

XV. Two Short Treks and Two African Chiefs . 242 

XVI. Odd Notes on Game and the Honey Guide . 256 

XVII. Tusks of Elephant and their Measurements . 270 

XVIII. Curious African Sayings and Ideas . . • 280 

XIX. Camp Hints 295 

XX. Stalking the African 3^9 

XXI. Hunting the Bongo 325 

XXII. Odd Notes on African Insects . . • -336 

XXIII. Mimicry and Protective Colouration in Insects . 356 



XIU 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Elephant in Uganda Frontispiece'^ 

TO FACK 
PAGE 

Belgian Postes in the Lado 24 

Rhino 36 

Elephant in Thick Bush 56 

Tame Animals at Kagulu. Lado Enclave . . . 56' 
In the Nile Swamps North of Wadelai . . . .74^'^ 

A Shady Camp 90 

Floating My Tent across a Swollen River . . . 104 

The African Canoe 104 

Gamra Oasis. Borana Country 132'^ 

The White Rhino ' . 132 '^ 

Elephants Shot in the Lado Enclave . . . .176"^ 

Baby Elephant 192-^ 

A Young Ostrich 232 

Koroli 232 

Topi 260 

■'Valler's Gazelle 260 

Beginner's Luck 276' 

A Nice Pair of Tusks 276 '^ 

G /x 300'"'" 

Giraffe 3°° 

Returning Home 33° ' 

Good-bye 3^4 



XV 



HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN 

AFRICA 

CHAPTER I 

ELEPHANT HUNTING 

There is something so fascinating and absorbing 
about elephant hunting that those who have done 
much of it can seldom take any interest again in any 
other form of sport. It seems so vastly superior to 
all other big game shooting that, once they have sur- 
rendered themselves to its charms, they cannot even 
treat any other form of hunting seriously. Every- 
thing else seems little and insignificant by comparison. 

The lot of the elephant hunter is now a hard one. 
Girt about on all sides with exorbitant and restrictive 
licenses, and with most of the elephant now driven 
into unhealthy and impenetrable country, he must 
needs be an enthusiast who would become a devotee 
of this sport. 

Sometimes when struggling waist deep through a 
swamp or forcing a way through tall grass and noxious 
vegetation reaching far above his head, with a blaz- 
ing sun and in a fever-stricken locality, after having 
paid £50 for a license to shoot two elephant, he must 
think bitterly on the accident of birth which brought 



2 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

him some fifty years too late into this world. He 
would hardly be human if he did not think with envy 
of those who had been able to shoot an unlimited 
number on no license in a gloriously healthy climate, 
and moreover in country so open that the pursuit 
could sometimes be carried out on horseback. There 
is one thing, however, for which the modern hunter 
has to be thankful, and that is the accuracy, lightness, 
and power of his weapon; in aU others he is handi- 
capped. 

In the early days in the East African Highlands 
things must have been much the same as in the old 
days in South Africa, except that the healthier parts 
were never so famed for elephant as the more tropical 
and unhealthier climes of Uganda and the low country 
to the north. 

The late A. H. Neumann must have had a glorious 
time in the Meru country and the Highlands north 
of Laikipia, the latter a place in which elephant are 
seldom met with now. 

The difficult and forbidding country about Lake 
Rudolf is at least open and absolutely devoid of vege- 
tation. The accounts of how elephant were met with 
day after day in perfectly open country by Count 
Teleki in his discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stephanie, 
a country which is now almost elephantless, read 
almost like a fairy tale to modern hunters. 

I have never met elephant in such open country 



ELEPHANT HUNTING 



as this, but, coming as I do amongst latter-day hunters, 
I have perhaps Httle to grumble about, as I have often 
found them in quite favorable localities where it is 
possible to move about easily. In another forty or 
fifty years perhaps it will sound equally like a fairy 
tale, that elephant could ever offer a clear and open 
shot at a hundred yards' range. 

The only place in which I have come across ele- 
phant in a cold and temperate climate is on the Aber- 
dare range, and there it is often too cold to be pleasant. 
Owing to the thickness of the vegetation, the scarcity 
of shootable bulls, and other circumstances I was not 
successful. 

The first time I visited these hills was in 1906 in 
company with a brother officer, Captain Olivier. The 
elephant appeared to consist chiefly of herds of females 
and young and had a sufficiently bad reputation. 
Shortly before, a hunter had had his arm broken by 
being flung aside by an elephant, whilst others had 
spent unpleasant moments with them. 

We decided to be very careful and cautious; so when 
we located a herd on the lower slopes we spent some 
time investigating them, and trying to spot a bull 
from a safe distance. They were screaming and 
trumpeting, a sign that they were chiefly females 
and young. They moved along the lower slopes in- 
side the bush belt rapidly, and where they had crossed 
the numerous watercourses coming down from the 



4 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

mountain they had pushed aside bushes and branches 
which had closed again over their path. In such places 
as these it was often necessary to crawl on hands and 
knees to pass the obstructions. 

Finally they moved up into the hills and started graz- 
ing, and we were not able to get a good look at them. 
The wind was bad, and we manoeuvred about for some 
time without seeing them, being only aware of their 
presence by the sounds of breaking branches. As they 
appeared to be slowly coming down the hill again, we 
decided to wait till they reached a spot in which the 
bushes were shorter and where we would have a better 
opportunity of being able to locate a bull if there was 
one with the herd. 

When one has a license only permitting the shooting 
of two elephants, one has to be very wary in approach- 
ing big herds in thick country, and cannot afford to run 
the risk of being charged by or shooting a female or 
small bull. 

Whilst we were waiting, sleet began to fall, and we 
took refuge under a big shrub. The sleet presently 
turned to hail, and we cowered under our shelter. 
Meanwhile we heard the elephant breaking branches 
and feeding uninterruptedly a short distance away. 
During the storm an elephant with about 30 or 40 
pound tusks appeared not 40 yards from us down wind 
and apparently quite unconcerned at the sleet. 

We tried to shoot him, but we could hardly see for 



ELEPHANT HUNTING 



hail, and it is a difficult matter shooting with another 
man when always accustomed to shoot by oneself. 
We each put a shot into him, but between us bungled 
him. He turned and raced to the edge of a steep 
nullah about a hundred yards off, and appeared to 
fall over the edge. We ran out from our retreat, but 
at that moment the hail redoubled in intensity, and 
came down the size of small marbles, so that we were 
absolutely unable to stand up to it. With one accord 
we turned and fled to a tree close by, and pressed our- 
selves against the trunk. 

The hail continued for about an hour, we were bitterly 
cold, the altitude was 8000 feet, and we were only dressed 
in the usual hunting shirt and shorts. I got a fit 
of ague and my teeth chattered so that I could not 
speak. While in this condition I peered round the 
trunk of our tree, and there, close to where the elephant 
had been I saw two rhino standing and calmly surveying 
the scene. The noise of the hail on the trees and 
ground, and the chattering of my teeth prevented my 
being able to tell Olivier of my discovery, but I nudged 
him and he peered round and saw what I was trying to 
tell him. 

I fired, and one of them dropped on his knees; when 
trying to reload, — I was shooting with a mannlicher, — 
a big hailstone got into the breech and jammed it. 
Olivier finished him off with a shot, whilst the second 
one turned and ran off. 



HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



Soon after this the hail stopped and we went to look 
at the place where we had last seen the elephant. We 
found that he had fallen, picked himself up again, and 
made off. The ground was so thickly carpeted 
with hail since he had passed that it was almost im- 
possible to follow his spoor, and we were so cold and 
miserable that we abandoned it, and returned to camp. 

Next day we went to take up the tracks ; the hail 
had melted to a certain extent, although still lying thick 
in the shade. The whole herd of about 40 animals 
had, however, passed over the spoor of the bull whilst 
the ground was wet and slippery, and had cut it up to 
such an extent that the original spoor was effectually 
obliterated. 

We stopped a day or two longer in the vicinity and 
saw a herd again but could not find a shootable male 
in it. On another occasion we saw an elephant on an 
opposite hill. After marking down the position we 
spent an immense time pushing through a tangle of 
vegetation, and when we at last reached the spot we 
found that he had moved on, and we were not able to 
catch him up. 

A few months later I was surveying in the same 
neighbourhood, and after a fortnight^s work decided that 
I was due for two off days at the rate of one Sunday 
per week. I got hold of two Kikuyu who knew the 
hills well, it being their trade to look for honey and take 
it down to sell in the villages on the east side of the 



ELEPHANT HUNTING 



range. I also took three porters to carry a waterproof 
sheet, a blanket, and a canteen for me. One of these 
porters was an old man, who, according to his own 
account, was so well fitted out with charms and spells 
that he could tackle any dangerous beast with impunity 
and move amongst them unharmed. I was told that if 
a lion was lying here and another there, two spots 
about live yards apart being indicated, he could come 
and sleep between them and continue on his way next 
day unmoved. 

The honey-hunters led us by elephant paths up the 
hills till we reached the bamboo forest. The whole 
mountain is covered with a network of these paths 
and the back of practically every spur, ridge, and col 
is crowned by an elephant road following its highest 
part. In places we met salt licks, either banks of red 
earth or old white ant-hills, on which could be seen 
the tusk marks of elephant who had come to break off 
lumps of the salt earth. All these marks, however, were 
of females or young and there were no impressions of 
big tuskers. 

We had just descended a steep bamboo-covered 
hillside, crossed a mountain torrent, and were slowly 
climbing the steep opposite side of the valley when we 
heard a noise from the slope behind us. On looking 
back we at first only saw the bamboo moving by some 
unseen agency. Every now and again there would 
be a trembling in a clump of trees and the top of a 



8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



stem would bend over and disappear with a cracking 
sound. On looking through my glasses I could dis- 
tinguish here and there a black trunk soaring upwards 
to reach for a high branch, and occasionally a glimpse 
of part of a black body between the bamboo clumps. 

After watching for some time I made out what I 
took to be three bulls on the right of the herd. Know- 
ing that I should not, in all probability, get another sight 
of them, once I left my coign of vantage on the hillside, 
I took careful stock of their position and of any big trees 
on the way to serve as landmarks. Then I descended 
to the bottom of the valley again, crossed the stream, and 
began the steep toil up the slope. When I finally 
arrived at the spot at which I had seen them there was 
nothing but their spoor left; the whole herd had moved 
on and there was not even the noise of cracking bamboo 
to be heard. I followed the spoor a little way, and, as 
I could see or hear nothing of them, I returned to the 
porters and arranged a site for our camp. Having 
done this I went after the elephant again, taking the 
Kikuyus with me, and we came up with them about 
sunset, busily feeding in a valley covered with bamboo 
forest. It was too late now to try and find where the 
males were, so we left them and returned to camp. 

The waterproof sheet was pitched on the side of the 
hill in the middle of the elephant path, there being no 
flat spot in which to put it and indeed no other place 
clear enough. I brewed myself some cocoa, which was 



ELEPHANT HUNTING 



very comforting, for the night was chilly, and we were 
at an altitude of about ten thousand feet. The rest 
of the repast consisted of cold meat, biscuits, and some 
honey the Kikuyu had found during the day. After 
rolling myself in my blanket and making myself as 
comfortable as I could on the very sloping pathway, 
I fell asleep, thinking how awkward it would be for us 
if the elephant wanted to pass by this same way 
during the night. 

However, they did not come our way, but next 
morning we found them still breaking bamboos in the 
valley in which we had left them the evening before. 
We could not see them, and, as the wind was blowing 
dovm the valley we followed along one side of the slope 
and descended below them. Here we found a network 
of fresh tracks, quantities of elephant having been feed- 
ing off the bamboo, which was greener in the valley 
bottoms, whilst the upper slopes and the backs of the 
ridges were covered with old bamboo forest. 

We had nearly reached the stream at the bottom of 
the valley, and we could still hear the herd busily 
feeding up-stream on our right when there was a 
stampede to our left, and we could also hear another 
herd beyond them charging off, crashing and crackling 
through the bamboos. We waited till the sounds had 
passed away in the distance, and still we could hear the 
crack, crack of bamboo from our herd feeding undis- 
turbed. 



lo HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

We cautiously made our way up the valley towards 
them till we could locate them by the moving of the 
bamboos. As they were not to be seen we circled 
round to try and get a view and mark down a shootable 
bull from the hillside above them. As we did this we 
gave our wind to yet another herd who went crashing 
off with such a clatter and crackling of bamboo stems 
knocking against each other and breaking that we 
thought it must disturb our herd, but when we listened 
we again heard the reassuring crack, crack, showing 
them to be still grazing. Again we circled round, and 
this time stampeded a fifth herd. 

We then descended a gentle slope towards our herd. 
A few tall junipers were dotted about in the bamboo 
here. I was with one of the Kikuyu and the old porter; 
the others I had left behind on first hearing the elephant. 
The old porter climbed up a tall and conveniently slop- 
ing tree to reconnoitre. Whilst he was up the tree I 
could hear a herd coming towards us, having evidently 
become uneasy from hearing the other one stamped- 
ing. I took refuge behind a tree with the Kikuyu as 
they appeared. They passed at about fifteen yards' 
distance, one female or unsizable male after another. 

Now a tree is all right to stand behind when it is 
between you and the elephant, but when some are one 
side and some another, one begins to wish for a tree to 
grow up behind one as well as in front. So when 
about five had passed close by and were standing just 



ELEPHANT HUNTING ii 

behind me, and the remainder of the herd began 
to come towards my tree with the intention of passing 
on both sides, I felt it incumbent on me to make some 
sort of demonstration. The next elephant was a 
young male who came swinging along straight towards 
our tree, and there were others on each side of him, so 
at about ten yards I planked him in the forehead and 
he dropped dead, whilst the herd turned and went back 
the way they had come. 

I was just looking at the fallen elephant and regretting 
the accuracy of my aim when another herd appeared 
on the scene, so I ran back to the shelter of my tree 
whilst they trooped past at thirty yards' distance. In 
the middle of the herd was a sizable bull, but he was 
surrounded on all sides by females and young. I got 
a momentary clear view of his head, and had a snap shot, 
and he fell. Instantly the rest closed round him, 
heads inwards, to lift him up with their tusks, and there 
was nothing to see but a ring of sterns. I ran out from 
my shelter to try and get another shot, but the next 
moment they had got him on to his feet and, surrounding 
him on all sides, so that it was impossible to get even 
a glimpse of him; the whole herd bore down on me. 

They were not charging, they were only stampeding, 
and I happened to be in the direction they had chosen. 
I did not wait, but turned to run, and looking over my 
shoulder saw a perfect avalanche of flesh bearing down 
upon me. 



12 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

As often happens with elephant, they did not go far, 
but suddenly stopped dead and listened. I looked 
round and saw that they had stopped, but could not 
see the wounded male. Just by me was a small tree 
with sloping trunk and a fork about twelve feet up. I 
thought that they were unlikely to come my way 
again, but would go off another way now, and that if 
I could reach this fork I might be able to get a glimpse 
of the bull over the backs of the others. It was a 
ridiculous thing to do, because twelve feet is just about 
level with the elephant's eye, and one would have been a 
very conspicuous object there. 

Anyhow, I commenced clambering up this tree as best 
I could with my rifle in my hand. There was another wild 
rush in my direction, and just as they reached within 
a few yards of my tree I caught hold of a rotten branch, 
which broke, and I fell heavily to the ground, not more 
than a few yards from the feet of the nearest elephant. 

This strange fruit dropping off the tree so startled 
them that they swerved away at right angles and 
crashed into the bamboo, pushing and jostling to get 
in front of each other. As they could only pass be- 
tween the clumps and they all chose the same two 
clumps, it was almost half a minute before the last 
of the herd had passed. The hind view of them 
charging and pushing each other, all trying to get the 
same path, reminded me more than anything of a 
scrum in a Rugby football match. 



ELEPHANT HUNTING 13 

I saw my wounded bull again, reeling like a drunken 
man, but by the time I had picked myself up and got my 
rifle he had passed, and there were a number of small 
ones bringing up the rear who successfully blocked the 
view. 

The sleeper with lion during these events had taken 
himself to the top of his tree, from which safe eminence 
he directed operations. The Kikuyu, however, had 
remained close by me during the first part of these pro- 
ceedings and only made himself scarce when we found 
ourselves in the road of the herd. He shortly appeared, 
and we went back to the dead elephant, and the old 
man descended from his perch, but no sooner had he 
come down than a herd came rushing through the 
bamboos towards us and we ran again. They came 
up to the dead elephant and then returned. 

I began to wonder how many herds there were around 
us and climbed up a tall tree to investigate. Owing 
to the thickness of the bamboos I could see nothing 
from there, but heard what I took to be the wounded 
elephant staggering and stumbling about a little way 
down the slope of the hill. I decided to investigate, 
but the sleeper with lion preferred to remain up his 
tree, and he did not come down again during the rest 
of the morning. 

I crept towards the sounds down an elephant path in 
the bamboos and presently saw the back of the head and 
part of the body of what I took to be the wounded one. 



14 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I tried for the back of the ear, but could not get a clear 
shot; however he dropped to the shot and then there 
was a wild screaming and breaking of bamboos as a 
herd came rushing towards me. I hurriedly put an- 
other shot into the fallen elephant, and then scrambled 
back up the slope to the top of the hill, where the ground 
was level and one could move about better. 

They appeared by the sounds to have reached the 
spot where the wounded elephant lay, and then moved 
off. I waited till all was quiet again and then returned 
to investigate. The wounded elephant was no longer 
there, but I heard bodies moving about in the bamboo 
but could not see more than a few yards, owing to its 
density. Close to where the elephant had been lying 
there was a sapling, and I clambered up this to try if 
I could see anything. When I reached a fork about 
ten feet up three female elephant appeared and passed 
and then returned, and stood about thirty yards be- 
low my tree with their trunks curling in the air, test- 
ing the wind. They moved backwards and forwards 
several times, and then passed out of sight, and I re- 
turned again to the dead elephant. 

I then called for the porters I had left behind to 
come and cut it up, and while doing this we went 
back a little way and heard other elephant uncon- 
cernedly feeding at the bottom of the valley. The 
porters arrived after making detour to avoid them, and 
I sat down and made some cocoa, thinking that I 



ELEPHANT HTXTIXG 



would give the elephant time to clear off before fol- 
lo\\ing the wounded one. 

.\fter the operation of cutting up the elephant had 
been proceeding for about an hour, there was suddenly 
a vnld rush, and trumpetings in the bamboo close 
at hand. We turned and fled, I lea\ing my cocoa 
on the ground. A herd rushed up close to the dead 
elephant and then returned back into the thicker 
bamboo. After all was quiet again we came back, 
all of us ver}' jumpy by this time. 

After finishing my cocoa I thought I would have 
another tr\' to find the wounded elephant. My men 
tried to persuade me not to, and stood by the dead 
elephant howling to me to come back all the time, but 
it seemed a pity not to have another try. So I re- 
turned to the place at which the elephant had fallen, 
picked up the blood spoor, and began following it. 
Ever}- now and then I heard some big body mo\-ing in 
the bamboos, and, when after going a httle way, I 
heard elephant mo\'ing on both sides and in front 
at the same time, I got an attack of cold feet and 
returned to the dead elephant, where my men were 
shouting lustily for me. 

Taking the fat and some meat we then started to 
make our way back, but on all sides we heard the 
cracking of bamboo from different herds grazing 
unconcernedly, as if nothing had occurred to disturb 
them. When we finally got through the ring of ele- 



1 6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

pliant and left the sounds behind us, we all breathed 
freely, as they had got on our nerves. We had run into 
elephant at about 6.30 or 7 o'clock in the morning, 
and they had been close round us on all sides from 
that time till we left at about i o'clock, although 
several shots had been fired, one elephant killed and 
another wounded, and they must have had our wind 
often enough. 

I have never experienced or even heard of anything 
like it before or since, and, if a stranger had told me that 
anything of the kind had happened to him before this 
occurrence, I should have most certainly doubted his 
veracity. As a rule, one shot or one whiff of a human 
being is enough to stampede a herd or group of herds 
right out of a neighbourhood. 

We made our way down the hill and back to my camp 
at the foot of the mountains. On the way one of the 
porters got lost, and after shouting for him for about 
half an hour we went on. Suddenly there was a loud 
clatter and rustling amongst the bamboo which made 
us all start, and the old sleeper with lions nearly jumped 
out of his skin. Someone said ''Baboon," and we all 
laughed except the old man, who asked indignantly, 
''Who is afraid?" 

We got back to camp just after sunset, and I sent a 
search party out along the foot of the hills with a 
lantern to look for the missing porter. They returned 
with him shortly ; he had dropped his load, and his 



ELEPIL\XT HUXTIXG 



clothes were torn to ribbons. He said that he had 
missed us about an hour or so after we started back 
and had taken a lower path do-^Ti the side of the hill, 
where he had come into another lot of elephant, and 
had run away from them, hence the loss of his load 
and his torn clothes. 

It is difficult to combine the absorbing task of hunting 
elephant with a conscientious performance of one's 
vrork, and, if one tries to, the chances are one does both 
badly. In this case I was unable to devote another day 
to the follovving of the wounded elephant. "It was 
the tvro paths which defeated the old hyaena," said 
one of the Swahilis to console me for my disappoint- 
ment, referring to a folk-lore stor>" in which a hyaena 
came to the fork of two paths and could not make up 
his mind which to take. Finally his right legs tried 
to take the right-hand path and his left legs the left- 
hand one, and he spHt in two. 

My survey work subsequently took me to the highest 
peak of this part of the range, and I was camped for 
two days at an altitude of about twelve thousand feet. 
I also crossed the high road back at the other end of the 
range, but I came across no more elephant, and I was 
too occupied \\dth my work to be able to leave it and go 
off to hunt. Moreover, as we had just come to an end 
of the porters' food I had to huny^ on to the KjkuATi 
villages at the foot of the range. 



CHAPTER II 

NATIVE TRACKERS 

As it seldom falls to the lot of the white man in Africa 
to find an instructor of his own colour, he generally 
has to pick up a knowledge of bushcraft through long, 
and sometimes bitter, experience, with the help of the 
natives he is amongst. As the latter are seldom able 
to impart the information they possess, he must needs 
learn from them by observation and deduction. Some 
white men appear to have not only picked up what bush- 
craft they know from contact with natives, but also 
their sporting code from the same source. All is grist 
to the native mill, and he generally tries to entice his 
master into indiscriminate and senseless slaughter. 
He has no idea of the sporting instinct, as we know it, 
and only hunts with the idea of getting unlimited meat. 

In tracking, however, he is often very proficient, but 
different tribes and different natives vary enormously 
in this respect, and it makes a great difference to 
the sportsman what sort of natives he first gets 
hold of. 

There was an old man who engaged himself to me as a 
tracker in my early days, whose methods puzzled me for 

i8 



NATIVE TRACKERS 19 

a long time. On finding a track he used generally to 
follow it back a few hundred yards and then branch 
off at right angles to it. It was only after he had been 
with me a month that I discovered his actions were not 
instigated by reasons so subtle that they were incompre- 
hensible, but that he was an absolute duffer. 

In British East Africa there appears to be an utter 
dearth of trackers. During three years of trekking in the 
country and constantly trying new natives, I never hit 
on a single one who was any use whatever. Even men 
who lived by hunting were nothing wonderful in their 
own forests, whilst once they left these they were per- 
fectly useless. The latter, though, have one great point 
to commend them, and it is that they hunt in silence. 
They refrain from talking loudly and tread lightly and 
silently. Many of the best trackers amongst other 
tribes seem to imagine that all game is stone deaf. 
Nothing can induce them, as a rule, to keep their 
mouths shut, and many of them walk clumsily and 
noisily. 

Often when I have been trekking along with a party 
of men or porters, I have turned to a boy orderly or gun- 
bearer and said, "Tell them to keep their mouths shut 
or else there will be no meat for them to-day. '' The 
individual so addressed generally turns and yells at 
the men behind him, expatiating on the virtues of 
silence at great length, and in a voice sufficiently loud 
to scare any game for miles round. 



20 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Perhaps it is, however, that each native thinks he him- 
self possesses a soft and gentle voice and that it is only 
his fellows who are loud and raucous. As the Swahilis 
say, "A baboon sees not his own stern callosities, he only 
sees those of his fellows." 

I was quietly fishing on the Loangwa River one after- 
noon when a Puku put his head out of the grass on the 
opposite bank, and then came down to drink at the 
river. To see a wild animal drink is a sufiiciently rare 
sight to be worth watching. As a rule, they only drink 
at night or very early morning. This was in broad 
daylight, at 3.30 in the afternoon. Fortunately the 
native tracker with me did not see him at first. When 
he did he gave a long-drawn Oh ! and then an Ah ! fol- 
lowed by an Ogwe ! all noises expressive of interest 
and astonishment, but which had the effect of sending 
the Puku back to cover before the completion of his 
drink. 

In Nyasaland and North Eastern Rhodesia practi- 
cally all the natives are fair trackers, and some are very 
good. Almost any man picked out at random from 
one's porters, soldiers, or servants would be better than 
the best tracker I have met with in British East Africa. 
At Fort Mlangeni there used to be a man whose spe- 
ciality was sable. It really was marvellous the way he 
always managed to find them. 

I was out with him one day and we found the old 
tracks of a bull, perhaps they were of the evening before. 



NATIVE TRACKERS 21 

He followed them a short way and then struck off and 
made for a little round hill, an underfeature to a range. 
Climbing this, he made another native with him sit 
down on one side of the hill and told him to watch the 
opposite slope. He then posted himself on the other 
side and we sat quietly and waited. We had been there 
perhaps an hour when along came a fine bull sable. He 
told me afterwards that it was the same as that of 
which we had seen the tracks. I had no means of 
verifying this, but I quite believe him, as he knew the 
hills and the sable and their ways upside down. 

I was very fortunate in my trackers for the last two 
years I was in Nyasaland. I had three in constant use, 
whose names were Ulaya, Chimalambe and Matola. 
Ulaya was a real genius at tracking. In the early 
morning or the beginning of a track he was wonderful, 
but he soon got disheartened and bored, and then he 
was perfectly useless. He had none of that " infinite ca- 
pacity for taking pains,'' most erroneous description of 
genius, which poor old Chimalambe possessed in his 
pig-headed, plodding way. 

For the first hour or so Ulaya used to fly away with 
the track ; he was practically never at fault and not a 
sign escaped him. If after that time the track was still 
old, he generally used to sit down and say it was no good, 
and nothing would induce him to take any further 
trouble over it. Chimalambe then took up the spoor- 
ing and for hour after hour he would slowly and pain- 



2 2 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

fully worry it out, making frequent mistakes, losing the 
track, and returning to pick it up again, but he was pre- 
pared to go on in the same way all day. Meanwhile 
Ulaya used to follow with a bored, disinterested air; 
occasionally when the spoor was lost he used to point 
it out with a pained expression, but more often he sat 
down and watched Chimalambe muddle it out. 

Matola was my orderly; he was neither the brilliant 
genius nor the pig-headed plodder, but just a sound, 
sensible fellow and a good soldier, as I will try to show 
later. When it came to close quarters with elephant, 
rhino, and buffalo it was always a case of "please step 
in front Private Matola,'^ whilst Ulaya and Chimalambe 
used to dally behind to explain to each other how it 
really ought to be done. 

In 1904 I trekked up to Lake Bangweolo with these 
three. I managed to get specimens of the black Lech we, 
and hoped also to get Situtunga, but in this I was dis- 
appointed. I could not get any of the local natives 
nor my trackers to realise that I was serious in my de- 
sire to lead an amphibious existence in the swamps 
and spend a lot of time and trouble in the hope of get- 
ting this one animal. From their point of view, it must 
have seemed ridiculous. The flats were swarming with 
Sassaby and other game to be had for the shooting. 
To leave all this meat walking about, and court certain 
discomfort and every probability of disappointment 
in the swamps, on the very off chance of getting another 



NATIVE TRACKERS 23 

kind of meat, must have appeared sheer madness to 
them. 

Hence whenever I asked about Situtunga the natives 
repHed that there was much meat on the plains and 
they did their best to put me off. It was not only be- 
cause they thought of themselves and the meat they 
would miss, but also they thought that they would 
save me disappointment by feigning entire ignorance of 
Situtunga. 

I took Ulaya out in a canoe in the swamps one day, 
but his pained and resigned look was so depressing 
that I never did it again. Without the whole-hearted 
assistance of the natives of the country, and Ulaya, 
who was the only one that knew their language, it was 
impossible to do much, and the ways into the swamp 
were difficult to find. After I had spent all the time I 
could spare and only just penetrated the fringe, we 
moved on northwards. 

We crossed the Chambezi River, and here I got news of 
elephant. One day I started out at 5 a.m. from a place 
called Chimutu. After a round unproductive of any 
result we struck a village at about noon. As we had 
been a long detour in the bush I thought that it could 
not be so very far from my last night's camp, so sent 
back for it and then proceeded again. 

We got back to this village in the evening, but there 
was no news of the camp, so I settled down to make my- 
self as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. 



24 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

The chief produced food for my men and I had my can- 
teen with me. I got a mat from the village and spread 
it before a fire and brewed myself some cocoa. I also 
had a camp pie and some bread, so I proceeded to open 
the former. 

It was in one of those tins that open with a key which 
rolls off a strip of tin. As so often happens with them, 
directly I started turning the key the strip of tin broke 
off flush, leaving nothing for the key to get hold of. 
It was then necessary to cut a tongue of tin to give the 
key a fresh bit to grip on, a proceeding somewhat 
damaging to one's hunting knife. 

Having done this, I placed my knife on a tree stump 
by me and tried again. The new strip broke away, 
so I had to have recourse to the knife again. As I was 
cutting away I heard someone come quietly up behind 
me, and looking round, saw that it was Matola standing 
to attention. Having prepared a new strip I was put- 
ting the knife down again, when a hand came forward 
to hold it for me. Again the strip broke and the hand 
reappeared with a knife, but this time it was his knife, 
and not mine, which was blunted on the tin. 

This quiet though tfulness often shown by the Bantu 
native is a very pleasing trait. The above incident 
reminded me of a time, when in Somaliland, I had asked 
a Somali to lend me his knife to cut something with, 
not a tin, but a bit of string or something which could not 
possibly have done any harm to it. The Somali did 





Belgian Postes in the Lado 
The top picture shows the station of Yei and the bottom that at Loka. 



NATIVE TRACKERS 25 

not proffer his knife, but commenced to haggle with me 
as to what I should give him, if he allowed me to have 
the privilege of using it. 

The Somalis are the most grasping natives it has been 
my misfortune to meet. In 1900 I was at Berbera 
with Captain Bruce, R.A., who was afterwards killed 
in that country. We were engaged in sending caravans 
up country. It was very hot, and we found the Somali 
extremely trying to the temper. When we were very 
upset we used to relieve our feelings by writing eulogia 
on the Somali character. The only one I can now re- 
member anything of was one that began, ^ Courteous, 
brave, generous to a fault, the Somali, etc.'^ 

To continue, having successfully opened the tin and 
fed off its contents, I made myself comfortable for the 
night on my mat. Shortty afterwards I heard the 
cheery voices of my porters singing in the dark, and 
presently they appeared. Having resigned myself to 
spend an uncomfortable night, it was very pleasant to 
see the sudden and unexpected arrival of all the comforts 
of civilisation. As I sat on my mat watching every- 
body bustling round to minister to my comfort, I felt 
that my position was somewhat analogous to that of 
the slave-raiding ant with all his attendant slave ants 
waiting on him. One was putting up the camp table 
and chair, another the bed, a boy called the hyaena had 
got out a box of cigars, guessing that they would be the 
first thing I would want, another was preparing the 



26 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

coffee pot, Matola was getting out the rifle oil and 
cleaning material, others were putting up the tent. 

It was late before we got fixed up, and then I had the 
dinner I so nearly missed. Next morning we did not get 
the loads packed up and started till 8 o'clock. After 
going two hours we found spoor of the night before. 
Fortunately there was water quite close, so leaving word 
for the porters to pitch camp there, we started off. 

The spoor seemed fairly fresh at first, and got older in 
appearance as we proceeded. This is caused by the 
difference in the effect on the spoor of the sun. It was 
perhaps six hours old when we found it, but it had passed 
those six hours in the shade. As the sun mounts up 
and gets stronger, spoor of the same age looks much 
older and drier. Leaves dropped and grass and shoots 
crushed down or kicked up look quite fresh after lying 
all night in the cool air with the dew on them. A few 
hours of sun, however, soon shrivels them up. 

Many elephant had been about, and the grass was dry 
and the ground hard, so it required considerable dis- 
cernment to hold our track amongst all the others. As 
usual, Ulaya was very keen for the first hour or so, and 
worked out the spoor at a rapid pace. After that he 
grew disheartened and bored, as we seemed to have 
rather lost than gained, and so for the rest of the day 
Matola came in for the lion's share of the work. 

At one o'clock the wind came in puffs from different 
directions with distant thunder, a hopeless state of 



NATIVE TRACKERS 27 

affairs when after elephant. The track was of three 
animals, a bull, cow, and young one. As we followed I 
noticed at one place that the bull had passed between 
two trees only about a yard apart at their bases, a 
circumstance from which I did not draw the deduc- 
tion I should have done. 

At four o'clock the spoor was still old, we had not 
halted since we had started eight hours before, and we 
were all rather done and had given up hope. We had 
just stopped by a tree which had been pulled down, 
and were feeling the leaves that had been dropped to 
see how dry they were, and I had half decided to aban- 
don the hunt. At this moment one of the men who 
had gone forward a little whistled, and immediately 
everybody made themselves scarce. 

The elephant were returning along their tracks. A 
young bull was leading; behind him I could see the 
ears of another, but not what sort of tusks it had. 

The young bull walked straight towards me, but 
stopped twenty yards off and began pulling a tree 
down. I hoped that those behind would come up into 
view before he had finished, but the one behind him 
went off to one side and I could not see it clearly because 
of the branches. 

Presently the small bull commenced coming towards 
me again ; if I crossed to look at the other, I must give 
him my wind. This I decided to do, and ran across to 
the other one, hoping to see it and get a shot before the 



28 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



alarm was given. The small bull gave the alarm, and 
ran back to the second elephant, who pricked up its 
ears. I then saw that it was a female, but it had 
very big tusks for a female. I took a shot at her, but 
I was unsteady with my run and the whole day in the 
sun, and did not knock her over. She crossed, and I 
fired a couple more shots at her. At the same time a 
terrific trumpeting was heard from just behind. 

I thought that I was all alone, but at this moment 
Matola appeared and said "Don't go that way, that is 
father and he is a Nyungwa (tuskless bull)." He had 
seen him whilst I had been engaged with the female. 
Matola had the most wonderful way of vanishing en- 
tirely and always appearing again when he was wanted. 

We hurried after the female and the Galongwa (young 
bull) and the other men with me reappeared from behind 
trees and ant-hills in the most miraculous way. Pres- 
ently they all fled again. The Galongwa was coming 
back on our wind. Father was screaming in one di- 
rection and the female had gone ofl in another. What 
made this youngster leave his mother and come straight 
back up the wind at us I cannot imagine, unless it was 
pure deviltry. 

I did not want to shoot it, so got behind a tree as it 
came trotting up. Matola had vanished, as usual, 
whilst I saw Ulaya and Chimalambe running away for 
all they were worth. It struck me that it would be 
intensely amusing to see the Galongwa chase them, as 



NATIVE TRACKERS 29 

he was going in their direction, and was just passing 
my tree. 

However, I did not have the satisfaction of witnessing 
this hunt, as he pulled up sharp ten yards from my tree 
and turned on me, a contingency I had not expected. 
The only thing to do was to down him, and so I reluc- 
tantly fired at his head and dropped him. I went up in 
front of him, but he was not dead and commenced to 
get up again. I put another shot in his forehead, but 
it did not reach the brain, and the next moment it was 
I who was being chased, besides being defrauded of 
the sight I had looked forward to, of seeing fat Ulaya 
do the hundred at his best pace with the Galongwa 
after him. 

I dodged sharply to my right, thinking that the ele- 
phant would pass, and I would get a side shot as he did 
so, but I tripped over a fallen tree, perhaps one he had 
pulled down earlier in the day. I went sprawling, 
dropping my rifle, and just managed to seize it by the 
muzzle as the elephant was about to tread on it. I then 
dived head foremost into the branches of the fallen tree. 

I made frantic efforts to crawl through, but a stout 
branch resisted my progress, and at the same moment 
the Galongwa pushed in after me, and pushed me through 
the branches to the other side. Two drops of blood 
from his forehead fell on my shorts, one on the thigh 
and one on the knee. Instead of pushing me straight 
through in front of him, though, he kicked me sideways. 



30 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

The impetus he gave me bent aside the stubborn branch, 
and the next moment I found myself crawling out on 
hands and knees on one side of the tree, with rifle still 
grasped by the muzzle, whilst the elephant was execut- 
ing a dance and stamping up the ground the other 
side, five yards from me, evidently thinking that I was 
under his feet. 

I quickly changed my rifle round and discharged it 
into his stern. It was the last cartridge in the rifle. 
Having fired, the rifle was taken out of my hands, and 
I found Matola, who had counted the shots, standing 
beside me, serving me the second rifle as a waiter might 
offer a dish. By some oversight it had not been loaded, 
and I had given strict orders that none of my men were 
ever to load or unload my rifles. Being a good soldier, 
Matola had not disobeyed this order, even under these 
extreme circumstances, but had gone the nearest to 
loading it he could. The breech was open, and he was 
holding the clip in position with his thumb just over 
the magazine. All I had to do was to press it down, 
as I took hold of the rifle, close the bolt, and I was 
ready to fire. The elephant was turning round, and I 
shot him in the brain, dropping him dead. 

The story has taken a long time to tell, but of course 
it all happened in a moment. I think as an example of 
a combination of pluck, discipline, and presence of mind 
in a sudden emergency, the behaviour of Private Matola 
would be difficult to beat. 



NATIVE TRACKERS 31 

We returned to camp, arriving after dark. Ulaya 
and Chimalambe were full of the day's adventures, and 
told the story of how we had been chased by the Ga- 
longwa over and over again to an admiring audience. 
I noticed that Matola's name did not figure at all in 
their narration. A listener would have thought that 
Ulaya and Chimalambe took a prominent part in the 
day's proceedings, whilst Matola, if he had been present 
at all, had been a distant spectator. Matola, having 
cleaned the rifles, retired to sleep, and did not take part 
in the discussion. 

About the third time they got to the point at which 
the elephant rushed up to them, I put my head out of 
my tent and asked if they had seen what happened. 
Of course they had, how absurd; were they not present ? 
^'Well, you must have very good eyesight," I replied, 
" because after it was over Matola and I looked for you 
everywhere, and at last we thought that you must have 
run all the way back to camp." 

It was rather mean of me, because they had not really 
run very far, and, neither of them having the second rifle, 
there was no real reason for them to stop. It annoyed 
me, however, that Matola, who had behaved so well, 
should be left completely out of it. Moreover, Matola's 
lack of interest in the matter might easily have been 
interpreted by those who had not been present as 
shame or chagrin at not having shared in the glorious 
doings of the others. 



CHAPTER III 

ABOUT RHINO 

A RHINO is generally a very easily killed animal. If 
you can get him broadside on with a big bore he almost 
always sits down at once. Facing he is less easy to kill, 
and if moving, often a very difiicult shot indeed. 

In British East Africa, where he is plentiful and can 
be found in open country, there is nothing in killing a 
rhino. In Nyasaland and North Eastern Rhodesia, 
however, where he is more scarce and always found in 
thick grass or bush, he is really a very sporting animal 
to shoot. The natives there fear him more than any 
of the dangerous game, partly because he is really dan- 
gerous in their country, and partly because, owing to his 
scarcity, they have not grown accustomed to him. 
They have not had a chance to cultivate a sufficiency 
of that familiarity with him which breeds contempt. In 
the latter countries he seems to walk much farther and 
has to be generally tracked up all day like elephant, 
instead of being come upon by chance as in East 
Africa. 

I have shot a good many rhinos in East Africa and in 
the Lado, when under the Belgians, during the ordinary 

32 



ABOUT RHINO 33 



course of trekking, either when in want of meat or be- 
cause they came uncomfortably close to one's porters. 
Less often I have killed them to make up my license or 
because I thought the horns were good. However, I 
have never taken any interest in shooting them; it 
always appeared tame and uninteresting, with the ex- 
ception of the few occasions when they came through 
my porters, in which case it was too disconcerting to be 
pleasant. In Nyasaland and North Eastern Rhodesia, 
however, the hunting of rhino was quite different, and 
killing one seemed a feat quite worthy of accomplish- 
ment. No doubt this was largely due to the difficulty 
in finding him. 

Whilst hunting near Lake Bangweolo I followed one 
for the greater part of the day, and finally crept up, 
closely followed by the faithful Matola, within five 
yards of where he lay, heavily breathing in thick grass. 
Even then it was so thick that I could not see him prop- 
erly, and bungled the shot, and he crashed off with a 
noise like an infuriated steam engine. We tracked him 
till dark, but did not come up with him again. 

This particular rhino followed close to the edge of a 
grass fire for several miles. I have often read, and been 
told, of wild animals' fear of fire, but never myself 
noticed anything to corroborate this idea. In fact, 
rather the reverse. I have often put up game lying 
peacefully quite close to a bush fire. These grass fires 
are of yearly occurrence, and the game must be well 

D 



34 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

accustomed to them. It is only when surrounded by a 
fire ring that they lose their heads, and indeed this must 
be a very alarming occurrence, especially if there are hun- 
dreds of natives at the same time shouting from all sides. 

In Nyasaland and North Eastern Rhodesia the ele- 
phant are often very bold at night, and after the harvest 
calmly walk into the villages, pull the roofs off the 
nkokwes, or grainstores, and help themselves to the 
maize cobs. When this happens, or they have been very 
persistent in entering the plantations at night before 
harvest time, the natives make large fires in their 
fields, and spend the night shouting and beating drums 
to frighten them away. Even this often does not deter 
them, and they visit the fields all the same. When, 
however, they are kept off, I fancy the shouting and the 
drumming have more effect than the fires. 

To return to the rhino, after the ease with which one 
has shot him in other places, it seems odd to read the 
pages of one's diary and notice the long tracks after him, 
the excitement when he commenced nibbling thorn, 
which showed that he would soon lie up, and the trouble 
one took to bring him to bag in Nyasaland. As I have 
said, he travels much farther there and in North East- 
ern Rhodesia, and one has to follow him for long dis- 
tances. As often as not one picks up his night's tracks 
at a water hole. He often goes tremendous distances 
to and from water, and perhaps his grazing grounds are 
seven to ten miles from the place at which he drank. 



ABOUT RHINO 35 



In 1905 I was looking for elephant in the vicinity of 
Fort Manning. I had no thought of rhino, but was 
anxious to shoot the elephant on my new license, as the 
old one had just expired. I was following an old ele- 
phant track across a dambo, or open grassy flat, when 
I met a fresh spoor crossing at right angles. The grass 
was very thick, and the track showed as a beaten down 
lane of grass, but it was not immediately apparent what 
had caused it, as the grass was too thick under foot for 
any spoor to be seen. I turned up the track for a few 
yards, and then bent down, parting the grass so as to see 
the tracks under it; I had a few Angoni with me, 
but they were some yards behind on the old track. 

Before my investigation was complete, I was left in 
little doubt as to the owner of the tracks, as I heard the 
engine-like puffs of a pair of rhinos close at hand break- 
ing down the grass. Evidently they had been lying 
up close to the spot at which I had hit their track and 
had now got my wind. 

The next moment a great behorned head burst out 
of the grass a yard or two from me. I had no time to 
think, but just shoved my mannlicher in his face and 
pulled the trigger. He swerved, but I do not know 
what became of him after that, as at the same moment 
I became aware of the second one bearing down on me 
from my left. There was no time to reload, so I tried 
to jump out of his path, with the usual result in thick 
stuff, that one tripped up. 



36 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



He kicked me in passing, and then, with a celerity sur- 
prising in so ponderous a creature, he whipped round, 
and the next moment I felt myself soaring up skywards. 
I must have gone some height, as my men on the ele- 
phant track said that they saw me over the grass, which 
was ten or twelve feet high. However, they are so very 
unreliable in their statements that it would be quite 
enough for them, if they heard what had happened, to 
imagine that they had seen it. Anyhow I fell heavily 
on my shoulder blades, the best place on which it is 
possible to fall, partly by accident and partly from prac- 
tice in tumbling in the gymnasium. 

On looking up I saw the wrinkled stern of the rhino 
disappearing in the grass, at which I said to myself, 
hurrah ! for I thought that he might continue the 
onslaught. Somehow I had the idea that he had been 
playing battledore and shuttlecock with me for some 
time, but when I came to think it over I could only 
remember going up once. Possibly being kicked first 
gave me this impression. 

Next I looked round for my rifle and espied it on the 
ground a little way off. I picked it up and examined it 
to see if it had been injured. While doing this I suddenly 
found that a finger nail had been torn off and was bleed- 
ing. Directly I discovered it, it became very painful. 

Whilst examining this injury some of my men ap- 
peared and uttered cries of horror. I could not make 
out why they were so concerned till I glanced at my 




o 



3 

o 

o 
-a 

3 



ABOUT RHINO 37 



chest and saw that my shirt had been ripped open and 
was covered with blood whilst there was a tremendous 
gash in the left side of my chest, just over the spot in 
which the heart is popularly supposed to be situated. 
Small bits of mincemeat were also lying about on my 
chest and shirt. 

This was a new problem to think out; I was in rather 
a dazed state, so I left the consideration of my finger 
and began to consider my chest. I felt nothing at all 
except a rather numb sensation. It struck me that it 
must have pierced my lungs; I would soon know if this 
was the case, as I would be spitting blood. I waited a 
short time and nothing of the sort occurred, so I con- 
cluded that the lungs were all right. 

Just at this moment there was a rustle in the grass; 
it appeared that the rhino had come back. One of my 
men helped me up and another put my rifle in my 
hands, and I awaited them, but presently we heard them 
tearing off again. 

I was only about thirty miles from Fort Manning, and 
so I sent off a native to tell the other fellow there. Cap- 
tain Mostyn, that I had met with an accident. Then 
I started back to the nearest village. After walking 
some time I felt faint, and so my natives cut a pole and 
trussed me on to it, fastening me with my putties. 
This was, however, so very uncomfortable that I had 
myself untrussed again and performed the rest of the 
journey on foot. 



38 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



Having arrived at the village, I sent off for my camp, 
which was at another village, and sat down to await it 
patiently. After a few hours it turned up, and I dressed 
my wound as best I could and lay down. I calculated 
the time the news would take to reach Fort Manning 
and the distance out and came to the conclusion that 
Mostyn could not possibly send help before about noon 
next day. 

[f I had a sleepless night tiU, about two in the morning, I 
heard voices, and then the stockaded door of the zariba 
being pulled down, and presently Mostyn appeared. 
He said that a native had arrived at sunset with the 
information that the white man had killed a rhino, to 
which he replied "Good.'' The information was re- 
peated and the native seemed in a greater state of agi- 
tation than the news seemed to warrant. Then he 
said that a rhino had killed the white man. 

This was quite a different thing. He was so agitated 
that Mostyn could not get out of him what had really 
happened, and so, thinking there must have been an 
accident, he got the Indian Hospital assistant, and the 
two set out. They covered some twenty to twenty-four 
miles in the dark on a bad track between 7 p.m. and 
2 A.M., a very fine bit of marching, especially as they 
did not know for certain where I was and had to knock 
up villages on the way and ask for news. 

The Indian, whose name was Ghulam Mohamed, was 
so done up when he arrived that I told him he had better 



ABOUT RHINO 39 



rest till morning, but he insisted on attending to me at 
once, and stitched up the wound most skilfully. He 
was a first-class doctor, and the job could not have 
been done better, for three weeks later I was well 
enough, though still in bandages, to start on a 240-mile 
march, which I performed in ten days. 

I think the country in which I have seen most rhino 
was that about the south and southeast of the Ithanga 
Mountains in British East Africa in 1907 — I add the 
date, as game in a locality differs often from year to 
year; I was surveying there and quite frequently met 
about ten whilst trekking along. 

One evening, coming home in the dark from sketching, 
I almost walked right into one standing quite motion- 
less. Another day in thick thorn two rushed up the 
path we were following. The porters threw down their 
loads and dived into the thorn right and left, whilst the 
rhino passed right up the line without damaging any- 
body or anything, although they must have passed 
within a few yards of thirty men in all. 

I find in my Diary for 5th November, 1907, "Came 
near to Maboloni Hill. Saw seven rhino grazing near 
the hill and steered the caravan safely past, leaving 
four about a hundred yards up wind and three about 
four hundred yards down wind.'' The next day I find 
"Met twelve rhino all in our immediate path. Two 
were lying down close to where I wanted to set up the 
plane table. After great difficulty they were persuaded 



40 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

to move, and I began setting up the table when an- 
other appeared. Leaving here we came on a party of 
three lying down near a river bed, one bull, a cow, and 
a calf. I watched the bull making advances to the 
cow, which were not favourably received, as she got up 
and prodded him away. They lay down again, and 
then suddenly all three jumped up and rushed off; I 
do not know what alarmed them. Going up a narrow 
spur I met one, and steering round to avoid him came 
suddenly on two others lying just over the edge of the 
ridge. 

"The cook went down to the river and said that he 
saw eleven and had to get up a tree." 

On the next day I met two rhino on a spur, the 
farthest one of which started walking towards us. It 
was very comical to see the man carrying my plane 
table, who had only seen the latter, hurriedly put 
down his load and bolt from the farther one right 
into the arms of the nearer one, which he had not 
noticed. 

On the day following this I was out early after lion, 
and hearing a noise behind me, saw a female rhino and 
small calf racing towards me, so I hurriedly got up a tree 
and let them pass. 

Later in the day when trekking along with my porters 
the same thing happened again; a female and calf ap- 
peared out of some thorn and raced after us. Loads 
were hurled down and there was a general sauve qui 



ABOUT RHINO 41 



pent, but they turned off again when they reached the 
loads and dashed back into the thorn. 

Just after that I saw one with an immensely long pos- 
terior horn, much longer than the anterior, standing 
under a tree in our road. I went forward and shouted 
and whistled till it moved on, and then we proceeded, 
only to find another about a hundred yards down wind 
of where we wished to pass. 

We were so bored with making constant detours to 
avoid these animals that we waited till he had grazed 
on about another 150 yards and then made a slight 
detour up wind so as to pass about 350 yards from him. 
When the leading part of the caravan got up wind of 
him, he went on peacefully grazing, but when about half 
had passed, he suddenly got our wind. 

Instead of going away he came towards us. I had 
shot my two rhinos for the year before we met any of 
the above-mentioned animals, and so I had been trying 
to avoid them as much as possible. I now stationed my- 
self in front of the caravan, hoping that he would turn 
off, but he came steadily on. 

When he got to about 80 yards distant he still had 
his head up. I fired, missing him on purpose, hop- 
ing that it would frighten him, but it seemed only to 
encourage him, as he then put down his head and came 
in earnest, wavering slightly from side to side to keep 
the wind. His head and horns covered his heart and 
brain, so at 50 yards I put a shot into the side of his 



42 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

shoulder, and at 30 yards I put another, which fortu- 
nately disabled his right shoulder so that he stumbled. 
He picked himself up and came on again, but now 
slowly, and the danger was past, as he was dis- 
abled and could be easily dodged. 

As I was surveying, and not shooting, and had no in- 
tention of shooting at a rhino, having shot all I was al- 
lowed, I had only three cartridges in my rifle, which I 
had now fired. My pockets were so full of pencils, 
notebooks, etc., that I had handed over all my cart- 
ridges to a Mkamba guide, who could be found nowhere. 

I called out for more cartridges, and meanwhile the 
rhino came slowly stumping on and I retreated before 
him. He had just reached the spot at which the por- 
ters had thrown down their loads, and I expected to see 
him begin to amuse himself with them, when my dog, 
who had only been a spectator so far, thought it about 
time to join in. He rushed barking at the rhino and 
the beast turned round and round, facing him, while the 
dog rushed round and round trying to get at his heels. 

Whilst this diversion was in progress the head man 
discovered the Mkamba guide up a tree, secured the 
cartridge bag, and came running up with it. Getting 
a convenient side shot, I finished the rhino. We cut off 
the horns with a hatchet to hand in at the next govern- 
ment station we passed, and continued our march. 

I have only mentioned a few of the rhino incidents 
which happened when I was sketching in that country. 



ABOUT RHINO 43 



It must be remembered that we were not looking for 
them, but rather trying to avoid them, as they delayed 
our marches and hampered my work. 

In the same country a rhino suddenly started up and 
came rushing towards us. When we shouted at him 
he thought better of it and turned round to make off, 
disclosing the fact that he had no tail. This seemed to 
tickle the porters very much, and as he disappeared 
with his small stump, in place of a tail, sticking straight 
up, he was sped on his way with shouts of derision. 
They seemed to imagine that his lack of a tail made it 
specially impertinent of him to have attempted to come 

for us. 

Once when I was sketching on a hilltop to the south 
of Embu where Hon had been heard for several nights, 
after finishing my work, I sent my men back to camp 
with the instruments, and myself made a detour, hoping 
to meet a Hon. Whilst passing under a tree, I noticed 
a rhino coming slowly towards me. The tree was easily 
climbable, and my first impulse was to get up and take 
some photographs, but then I remembered that I had 
no camera. So I moved a Httle out of his path and 
watched him. He came slowly up to the tree and lay 
down underneath it. I regretted very much the ab- 
sence of my camera; one could have taken a splendid 
iUustrated interview from a perch on the tree. 

Rhino, in spite of the thickness of their skin, appear 
very subject to sores. There are almost always large 



44 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

sores on the chest or stomach, and often enormous fes- 
tering sores on other parts of the body. They fre- 
quently, too, are cut and gashed about, these being prob- 
ably caused by fighting together. A female I shot once, 
amongst other gashes, had one vertical one extending 
from the centre of the back almost to the stomach. 
That is to say, it went nearly halfway round her body. 
It seems almost inconceivable that such a wound could 
have been inflicted with a prod of another's horn, and 
yet I cannot think of any other cause to which it could 
be attributed. 

When I was hunting in the Lado Enclave in 1908, 1 
found the white or square-lipped rhinoceros very com- 
mon about Wadelai and close to the Nile for some days 
to the north. Although I never looked for them or 
followed up their spoor, I was constantly meeting them. 
As it was a grass country, they could not be seen so 
easily as in a country such as that described above, so 
they must have been even more numerous than they 
appeared. It was curious that on no single occasion 
did my Baganda porters recognise what they were when 
they saw them in the grass, but invariably said, "There 
is an elephant." The same held good with the spoor, 
as they always said that it was elephant spoor. 

I suppose that as they are not met with in Uganda 
proper they had never seen them before. One would 
have thought that after seeing them once or twice and 
cutting them up, they would have learnt to distinguish 



ABOUT RHINO 45 



them from elephant and that they must have noticed 
how different the spoor was from that of the latter. 
This was the more remarkable in that they were really 
very good at detecting and spooring elephant. I have 
always noticed that, however good a native may be at 
hunting and tracking the game he knows, directly he 
meets somiething new to him he is not only hopeless, but 
makes the most wild and impossible shots. One would 
think a trained tracker would be too cunning to go so 
hopelessly wide of the mark as they do. The tracks of 
a waterbuck and hartebeest are often very similar, but 
a good Nyasaland tracker would never be in error about 
the two. 

I have never heard a tracker on meeting a spoor new 
to him say, "This is a spoor I have never seen before.'' 
He always finds a name for it amongst the animals he 
knows and generally chooses one that has no likeness 
to it at all. The first time I saw the spoor of Lesser 
Kudu I at once recognised it from its likeness to that of 
the Greater Kudu, but my tracker, who had come with 
me from Nyasaland, where there are none of these 
animals, said "Mpala." Yet I cannot pretend to 
anything like the knowledge or the ability of these men, 
which proves that they hunt more by instinct than 
anything else, and do not use their heads. 



CHAPTER IV 

MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 

The best elephant country I have struck was the 
Southern Lado Enclave and the southeastern edge of 
the Welle district at a time just after the stations of 
Wadelai and Dufile had been abandoned by the Bel- 
gians. The number of elephant there then was mar- 
vellous, but the country was unhealthy and the travel- 
ling difficult, although the actual hunting was generally 
easy. Later the district became so overrun with 
poachers that the majority of the bulls were either 
shot out or moved westwards. 

In 1908 my friend. Captain R. S. Hart, and myself, 
having been fortunate enough to obtain permits from 
Brussels, took out our licenses at Mahagi, and then sep- 
arated to hunt. Had we known more about the coun- 
try we should have come earlier in the year; as it was, 
we wasted much time in Uganda before we could find 
shootable bulls, and reached the Congo as the grass was 
beginning to get long. Shortly afterwards the heavy 
rains broke, filling up the swamps and making the 
rivers often impassable. 

Hart proceeded northwards from Mahagi, whilst 

46 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 47 

I came down the Nile, bringing with me a large canoe 
I had bought on Lake Albert. The first day after I 
commenced operations and had been trekking all day, 
I came across a small herd of females and young, and so 
leaving them, returned to my camp on the Nile at 
5 P.M. I had started out at 5 a.m. on three boiled eggs, 
and on my return found that the cook had been unable 
to buy anything, so I had to dine off a soup tablet, some 
rice, and beans. 

If I had known how poverty-stricken the country 
was, I should have brought some tinned food; as it 
was, the greater part of the time I was in the en- 
clave I was hard up for meat, and my porters for 
food. Although there were plenty of elephant, small 
game was very scarce, and I seldom had the time to 
hunt it, and moreover was always loath to fire for 
fear of disturbing any elephant that might be in the 
neighbourhood. 

Next day we managed to buy a few chickens from 
the Uganda bank and then trekked inland and saw no 
fresh spoor, but got information of elephant at a place 
about 25 miles farther on. We trekked on to this place, 
and found that the news was old, but I managed to shoot 
a buffalo, which was very fortunate, as I was able to 
exchange the meat for flour from the villages for my 
porters. 

There was so little cultivation in the country and the 
natives were so unwilling to sell any food, that it was 



48 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

only by this exchange of meat for flour that we were 
able to feed our porters at all. Now and then we were 
able to buy a pound or two for salt, but the natives 
generally treated the rest of our trade goods with 
supreme indifference, and always declared that they 
had no food to sell. 

When an elephant or rhino was shot we had to guard 
the carcass till the people had brought us flour. Gen- 
erally, however, they turned up in such quantities for 
the meat that this was impossible, and we then had to 
cut off all the meat we could secure and take it on with 
us to the next village or group of villages, and there 
change it for flour. As nearly every village was in a 
state of war with the adjoining one, the people in the 
next village who were eager for meat would have been 
unable to get any from the carcass. 

All the natives were ready to help find elephant and 
bring in news, as they were unable to kill elephant for 
themselves. The Madi and Lugware, amongst whom 
we did most of our hunting, are extremely timorous 
about elephant, and seldom seem to kill them with spears 
as other tribes do. Once an elephant had been killed 
they took no further interest in finding them till the 
bones had been picked clean, every scrap of meat had 
been devoured, and moreover till they had had suffi- 
cient time to recover from their gorge. 

So it used to be our practice to cut out the tusks as 
quickly as possible, and at once move off to the next 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 49 

hostile village, where the people would still be suffering 
from meat hunger and ready to bring in news of ele- 
phant and help one in finding them. 

On the day following the shooting of the buffalo we 
started at sunrise and reached a village about 8 miles 
on. Here we were told that the whole village had gone 
on to the next one to join in an elephant hunt. The 
people here were Alurs, who were not so timorous with 
elephant as the Madi. 

We went on to the next village and found the chief, 
who was the only able-bodied man left in the village. 
He said that the elephant had been seen close by and 
that he would take me to the place. I wanted to take 
on my camp part of the way, but as he said there was no 
water ahead, I left it, and took one of the head men on 
with me. We marched for two hours, and then came 
across the old site of a village. As this was a pretty 
certain indication of the presence of water I looked 
round and found a water hole, and so sent the head 
man back to fetch the camp on to this site. 

We then went on, the chief, myself, and a guide I 
had obtained from the Uganda side. After going for 
another two hours without seeing any sign of spoor, 
the chief suddenly sat down and said that it was very 
far to the place and that we had better go back. I said 
that if it was very near four hours ago, it could hardly 
be very far now, and anyhow I would go on. The 
chief said that we could not possibly reach the place 



50 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

that day. However, I persisted, and we started off 
again. 

After going for a bit we came on elephant spoor, which 
we followed, and it led us to the identical place where I 
had seen the small herd of females and young close to 
the Nile some days before. The spoor then took us up 
the valley in long grass, not real elephant grass, but 
only about breast high, with isolated higher stalks. By 
the tracks it would appear that it was an enormous 
herd we were following. 

Suddenly we heard numbers of natives yelling and 
shouting from the side of the valley; this was the ele- 
phant hunting party. Apparently they had headed 
them off, and this had the effect of driving the whole 
herd back on us. In another moment the grass all 
round us was seething with elephant. There must 
have been about two or three hundred split up into little 
herds of twenty or thirty animals in each. 

They were charging up and down in the grass on all 
sides, alarmed by the shouting from the hillside and not 
being quite certain which way to go. There were no 
big tuskers, but plenty of males of about 50 and 40 
pounds. 

It was the first time I had been in the middle of a big 
herd with an unrestricted license, and I am afraid that 
I rather let myself go. Fresh herds came surging up 
out of the grass, and I had an exciting five minutes. 
When they went off I ran after them, till the last one I 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 51 



fired at disappeared, and racing after him, I heard him 
gurghng on the ground in front of me. I was exhausted 
after my long day and running, and threw myself down 
at a muddy pool of water to drink, thinking that he was 
done for. When I got up he had gone and I never 
caught up with him again. 

I then returned to make certain of any still breathing 
and count the bag. There were in all eight, most of 
them shot from my original position, but three I killed 
whilst running after them. I had been shooting very 
well that day, and I beheve the only one I hit and did 
not get was the one who fell down and afterwards got 
up again and went off. At any rate no other blood 
spoor was found after a minute search by myself and 
many natives. There was such a seething mass of 
elephant, however, and I had to fire so quickly, that 
it is very difficult to tell for certain. 

The native hunting party then descended with loud 
shouts and cries and fell on the meat whilst I set off 
back to my camp. I was met by porters with the 
lantern before it got dark, and arrived shortly after 
sunset. As I had been going for over twelve hours 
without food or rest, I was glad to tumble into my chair 
and start to work on dinner, which consisted of some 
excellent buffalo tail soup, buffalo marrow and heart. 

Next day we moved to the scene of the disgusting 
slaughter and I sent for my canoe, which I had left at 
my first camp on the Nile, as it was impossible for my 



52 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

porters to carry all the ivory. The canoe proved an 
absolute godsend later, as I should not have been able 
to proceed without it. 

Just at present, however, it was not of much use, as 
I had been unable to obtain any paddles with it and the 
two natives I had hired from the Uganda bank to ma- 
nipulate it now insisted on returning, as they said that 
they would have to go back through hostile country if 
they came on any farther with me. With no paddles 
and no natives who understood its management, it was 
little use, so I had to proceed down the Nile by short 
marches, sending back the porters after each march to 
fetch the remaining loads. 

In this slow and stately way we continued towards 
Wadelai, at which place I had promised to meet Hart 
on a certain day, while I occupied the time of enforced 
delay in hunting. I killed an elephant near a village 
and was lucky enough to be able to exchange some of 
the meat for a paddle, and then made two of my porters 
learn how to manage the canoe. 

Two days later, while waiting for the canoe to be 
brought down, I followed a herd of elephant, and they 
took me past the spot at which the last elephant had 
been killed. This is a thing I have frequently noticed 
when after elephant, — how often their spoor leads you 
past an old skull or the spot at which one has been 
killed. This happens so often that I think it must 
be more than coincidence. Very possibly they are 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 53 

really following some old path or elephant track which 
has been habitually used by elephant, and which they 
recognise, whilst it appears to us just like any other 
part of the bush if the path is overgrown. 

By this time I should have been at Wadelai, so I 
sent on my head man with a letter to Hart, telling him 
of the predicament I was in and asking him to send 
some of his porters to help me. The man returned and 
told me that Hart was not at Wadelai, and so I did not 
hurry unnecessarily. It afterwards appeared that the 
man, with extraordinary ingenuity, had crossed the river 
and made his way to British Wadelai, at which place he 
naturally did not find Hart, nor could he have been ex- 
pected to, since we left him inland of us. Meanwhile 
Hart had been waiting for me at Belgian Wadelai as 
agreed, and as I did not turn up he left the day before 
I arrived. 

When we got within ten miles of the place we met fresh 
spoor of two big elephant on the path, and so I sent the 
camp on whilst I followed the spoor. It led us inland 
and then into the immense tall grass and reeds which 
covered some low, wet, and slushy country on the banks 
of the Arua River. After going for an hour or two 
through water and mud we heard them the other 
side of a belt of very thick grass. 

We came through this and into shorter grass the 
other side, and I got a gHmpse of one of them 150 yards 
off, as I was on a Httle rise. I made my way to a tree 



54 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

sixty or seventy yards nearer, from which place I could 
have got a good shot. Just as I was about to fire, I 
saw for the first time a second elephant beyond him. 
As he tossed up his head for a moment I caught a 
glimpse of his tusks, which were a bigger pair than the 
first. I could not see him well enough to fire at him 
from where I was, so decided to get nearer. Between 
me and the first elephant was a shallow dip so that if 
I advanced at all, I must advance almost up to where 
he stood, as I would pass out of sight directly I left 
the higher ground near my tree. 

I descended the dip, and had to move very slowly as 
the grass was long and dead, and rustled as I moved. 
I got up to within 25 yards of the first elephant, and 
could only see him imperfectly through the tall grass, 
while the second I could not see at all from my new 
position. 

The first one was breaking up a small tree, and I 
advanced again, but this time he heard me moving in 
the grass and suddenly whipped round and stood lis- 
tening with ears outspread. In another moment he 
would have been off, so I had to fire hurriedly through 
the grass, although I could not see well. I gave him 
both barrels of my .450, and he crashed off into the 
thick grass and reeds 

I followed his spoor, which after a few hundred yards 
began to show a lot of blood. He passed through very 
thick reeds, and I followed till I heard a noise in front. 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 55 

Climbing up a convenient ant-hill high enough to en- 
able me to get a view over the tall grass, I saw an ele- 
phant standing under a tree in front. He immediately 
moved on and downwards, and passed out of sight, and 
then I heard a rustling noise which I could not make out 
for a moment, but I suddenly realised what it was. It 
was water splashing; he must have descended into a 
stream, perhaps the river that I had heard was between 
me and Wadelai. 

There was not a moment to lose, so I slid down my 
ant-hill and raced as hard as I could down the spoor. 
I came out suddenly on a dense belt of reed, through 
which the path led as a narrow lane. The next moment 
I was on the river bank with a dense mass of reed lean- 
ing well out over the water on either hand and prohibit- 
ing a view up or down stream ; just below me in mid- 
stream was not only my elephant, but a herd of about 
25 in number, all bulls, slowly making their way across 
the stream, which was coming down in flood. 

Never had there been such a chance, as I could see 
the steep bank on the opposite side of the crossing, up 
which they must clamber one by one, exposing their 
heads to a vital shot as they did so. It is the sort of 
situation I have dreamed of often enough, but never 
hoped to realise. Bringing up the rear was my wounded 
elephant, presenting only a stern shot to me. 

Now I come to think of it, I undoubtedly ought to 
have waited till the leading elephant began climbing 



56 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the opposite bank, which was not more than 40 yards 
away. What I did was to blaze into the stern of my 
wounded one. He immediately turned round and be- 
gan coming back towards me, whilst the whole herd 
stopped and marked time in midstream. The elephant 
turning round gave me a chance of firing into his chest, 
which I did without delay. 

I have said that, although on the river bank, I was 
in a narrow lane of tall reeds. I could see across the 
river and the landing on the other side clearly enough, 
but owing to the reeds at the water's edge, reaching 
far out over the water, I could not see either up or down 
stream, but only the narrow strip of water straight 
across the river. 

The stream was coming down with great force, and 
as I fired into the elephant's chest he seemed to be 
carried down-stream by the current and passed out of 
sight behind the reeds. The same thing had happened 
to the whole herd; whilst marking time in midstream 
they had lost ground and been taken a few yards down- 
stream, which was sufiicient to take them out of my 
sight, although I could hear them not 20 yards off. 

I rushed back through the reeds and charged into 
the belt another 10 or 15 yards down-stream and fought 
and pushed my way through till I stood on the edge of 
the steep bank; but here my position was worse than 
before. I could hear the elephant just below; the 
nearest could not have been more than ten yards or 






^-.^r-^ 









t^^ ^>-. 









Elephant in Thick Bush 
He has just become uneasy and is testing the wind. 




Tame Animals at Kagulu. [Lado Enclave] 
From left to right they are : female waterbuck, male waterbuck, and Uganda kob. 



I) 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 57 

at most fifteen yards from me, but so dense was the 
mass of reeds growing outwards from the bank over the 
water that I could not see a square inch of the water 
at my feet, far less the elephant. 

It seemed the most maddening thing possible; if 
I could only find an open space, I might shoot any 
number; and here I was, absolutely defeated by a mass 
of reeds. The sounds passed down-stream, and I 
crashed through the reeds again and ran down the 
bank about 40 yards before making another dive into 
the reeds. I rushed in with such impetus that I fell 
down a steep bank, ramming the muzzle of my rifle 
into the soft earth as I fell. 

After scrambling out again I had to run back along 
my tracks till I found the porter with my second rifle 
who had dallied behind. I seized this and dashed 
down the elephant path again, which followed along 
outside the reed belt, and after going for about a couple 
of hundred yards there was a break in the reeds, 
trampled by elephant. It was at a bend of the river, 
and I came out on to the bank and got a clear view 
of several hundred yards up-stream. There was not 
a sign of any elephant, not even the wounded one, 
nothing but the muddy river frothing down in flood. 

I then returned to the crossing and waded in to see if 
there was any sign of the wounded one. The stream 
was tremendously strong, and I had to move very care- 
fully. When I reached the edge of the reeds and could 



58 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

look around the corner, the river was up above my 
waist. To my reHef I saw the side of the elephant 
rising as a little island about a foot above the water. 
I managed to reach it, almost neck deep, and climb on 
to it, but the head was below water and the stream was 
too muddy to be able to see the tusks; I could only 
ascertain what they were like by feeling them. 

As I knelt on him he moved; I thought for the 
moment that he had come to life again; the next moment 
I realised what had happened. The river had risen 
another few inches, which had just floated him off the 
bottom, and I was commencing to float down-stream on 
top of him. 

I hurriedly left him, and tried to reach the shore 
again, but the stream was so strong now that I could 
make no headway against it, and would certainly have 
been carried down if one of the local natives, who had 
accompanied me, had not reached out to me the end 
of his long spear whilst he himself was standing in shal- 
lower water and holding on to the reeds. With this 
help I regained the bank, leaving my elephant majesti- 
cally sailing down-stream. The next thing was how 
to recapture the elephant. I had visions of him sail- 
ing out into the Nile or being eaten by crocs whilst his 
tusks sank to the bottom and were lost forever. 

We hurried back down the river to fetch ropes and 
assistance, but there was no telling where he might land 
up, and the banks were so thick that it might be al- 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 59 

most impossible to locate him. Also I thought that 
if the natives got hold of him they would cut off all the 
meat in the water and let the skull and tusks sink 
to the bottom, as these bones did not interest them 
at all. 

An hour or two's walk brought us to a big village on 
the river bank. It was here that the path to Wadelai 
crossed, and I heard with a certain amount of satisfac- 
tion that all my loads had passed over to the other bank 
in safety, although it puzzled me to imagine how this 
had been accomplished, as the river was coming down 
at a prodigious rate, and was reported to be over a 
man's head at the middle of the ford. 

When I said that I wanted to cross, a few of the vil- 
lagers tested the ford by entering the river a couple of 
hundred yards up-stream, and proceeding diagonally 
across with a funny little skipping and bobbing motion. 
They held their hands straight above their heads, and 
as they neared the centre each skip carried them about 
20 yards down -stream to one yard across. At one 
time their heads disappeared under water, and only 
their hands were above the level of the river. 

On arriving at the other side they ran up the bank 
again, and throwing themselves into the water came 
swimming across like fishes and pronounced the ford 
practicable. Then taking my rifles, ammunition, field 
glasses, and camera they held them high above their 
heads and bobbed and skipped across the river with 



6o HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

them. Although the men carrying them were at one 
time wholly under water my goods reached the other 
side safely and dry. 

I learnt that all my loads had been taken across 
the river in this wonderful way, but the water had 
not been quite so high then. Only one load had got 
a little wet containing trade goods which were soon 
dried again. 

We got into the old Belgian station at 3 p.m., where I 
collected my porters, and taking some rope set out to 
find the truant elephant. We followed up the river 
bank on the Wadelai side as, owing to the bend of the 
river, it was not so far up this side. To my relief we 
met a native carrying a bit of trunk ; the elephant had 
come to shore then and the natives had lost no time 
in nosing it out. Presently we heard the sound of many 
voices, which guided us to the spot, and we found a 
number of people in the water busily cutting up the 
carcass. 

The first precaution I took was to moor the tusks 
to the bank so that there should be no danger of their 
being washed down-stream or falling to the bottom of 
the river after being cut out. The porters worked well, 
and by shortly after sunset the tusks were out, and we 
started back again. We blundered along in the dark 
and overshot the station, as there were no stars out to 
guide us. Finally we ran into a village and got a na- 
tive to put us on the path. 



MORE ELEPHANT HUNTING 6i 

We did not get in until about ii o^clock at night, 
however, and I found dinner ready for me in the old 
Belgian mess, which was in quite good repair. I had 
been on the move since sunrise and been twice wet 
through and had my things dry on me. So it was with 
some relief that I got a change, and then had a feed and 
came to anchor. 



CHAPTER V 

AMONGST THE MADI 

After the events described in the last chapter I took 
a day's rest at Wadelai. The old Belgian station was 
built on an elevated site overlooking the river, which at 
this spot narrows to about 200 yards broad and is 
quite picturesque, as its banks are hilly. The houses 
were of brick, thatched, and still in quite good repair, 
although when I passed a few months later most of the 
roofs had fallen in. 

I spent the afternoon in the canoe on the river, more 
by way of coaching the crew than anything else. We 
were returning slowly up-stream, past a few hippo who 
were disporting themselves about a hundred yards or 
more away. One of them raised his head and shoulders 
out of the water and looked steadily in our direction; 
it is probable that he did not really see us, as these 
animals are very short-sighted, but that he had our 
wind. 

After a prolonged stare he dived under water, and 
then we saw a V-shaped ripple on the surface slowly 
approaching the canoe, showing that he was swim- 
ming under water towards us. As the ripple ap- 
proached nearer and nearer, I felt that he should be 

62 



AMONGST THE MADI 63 

discouraged, and got my rifle ready, expecting every 
moment to see his head pop up. However, nothing 
of the sort occurred, but the ominous ripple still ap- 
proached till there was a tremendous crash, the end of 
the canoe was raised a yard in the air by some unseen 
agency and then fell heavily to the water again. As 
the canoe rolled I clutched my rifle and the sides of the 
canoe, expecting every moment to be deposited in the 
river. 

The bottom of the boat filled with water, and I 
anxiously looked for the yawning hole which I felt sure 
must exist, thinking that the only thing to do would be 
to sit on it by way of caulking it. However, no hole 
could be seen and it dawned on me at last that all the 
water had come over the end or the sides. The great 
massive log of wood which we called a canoe had suc- 
cessfully resisted the shock. 

It was really a fine canoe, the best I have ever seen on 
the Nile, and its carrying capacity appeared unlimited. 
We started by loading it gingerly with six or seven 
loads, but before we had done with it, it was often 
carrying half a ton. 

Meanwhile the V-shaped ripple was slowly retreating. 
The old hippo, having had his little joke, was going off 
without even offering a shot. I did indeed get a ghmpse 
of a broad back just after the shock, but I was then too 
busy clutching on to the sides to attempt a shot. 

Next day we proceeded down-stream again. The 



64 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

ivory and extra loads, such as a supply of food we had 
obtained from the pleasant Chief Ongwech of Wadelai, 
were put in the canoe, while the porters proceeded by 
land. 

After my unpleasant experience of the day before I 
felt nervous about trusting my ivory to the tender 
mercies of any hippo who might feel facetiously in- 
clined. So I made a buoy for the canoe and fixed it 
by a rope to the stern or bow (we never knew which 
end was which, as they were both square) and also 
decided to travel in it myself. 

Ongwech gave me two men, one to go in the canoe 
and one with the porters so that we might both arrive 
at the same place. For below Wadelai the river enters 
into a sudd region traversed by a few channels. Once 
one gets out from the shore there is no telling where any 
channel may lead to ; it may come out on one bank of 
the river or the other, or it may proceed for miles with 
dense sudd between it and the shore, or end in a cul 
de sac. 

So we proceeded down-stream in the canoe, a very 
sumptuous way of travelling after the continuous 
walking here and in Uganda, till we arrived at the 
appointed place for camp. It was a little village on 
the shore, the first spot at which our thin winding 
channel reached terra firma. 

The village was the first Madi one we had struck. 
I went up to it and could only find one man, on whom I 



AMONGST THE MADI 65 

sprung the only phrase of Bangala I knew well at that 
time, which was "Are there elephant?" He stared at 
me in doubt for some time, and I repeated my stock 
phrase several times in different tones and in the most 
ingratiating way I could. 

At last I could see a dawn of intelligence glimmering 
over his features, and he spoke rapidly in a strange 
language, pointing inland. This was enough for me; 
I returned to the canoe and got my bandolier and rifle. 
Then, telling the canoe men to await the arrival of the 
porters and choosing a site for the camp, I invested 
my new-found friend with the bandolier and pointed 
in the same direction as he had, repeating elephant, 
elephant. He explained something at great length, 
and he appeared to be reluctant to go, as he pointed to 
the village several times, but I pushed him on, repeating 
elephant at intervals and making signs that he would 
get a reward of calico. 

So we set out and made for the foot of the hills, and 
here he pointed to the spoor of elephant which had been 
eating the crops the night before. This was all I wanted, 
so I took up the trail and started, following it into the 
hills. They had been far since their night's feed, and the 
day was hot but the going was good. The grass was 
short and the country gently rolling, whilst at intervals 
we saw bushes bowed down with heavy loads of a black 
berry the size, shape, and colour of a blackheart cherry 
and with the taste and consistency of an enormous 



66 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

bilberry. This fruit is called uba by the Madi. With 
these we refreshed ourselves from time to time till 
at about three o'clock, as we were on the side of a 
rolling slope, my companion pointed out a small 
herd of elephant about 800 or 1000 yards distant on 
the other side, I being too engrossed in the tracks to 
notice. 

Having pointed these out to me, he considered his 
part of the programme complete and, with a satisfied 
sigh, he resigned himself to rest under a tree whilst I 
carried out the only part which remained. 

This was the first experience I had of the Madi, and 
later I was astonished again and again not only at their 
timidity with elephant, but their absolute ignorance of 
the beasts who were found in such numbers in the vicin- 
ity of their villages. Even the most timorous native 
knows, as a rule, that an elephant is not dangerous at 
800 yards with the wind right. Moreover, he knows 
enough about them to pose to the uninitiated as quite 
brave, as he realises exactly how far he can go in com- 
plete safety. 

Not so the Madi, however; I beckoned him to come 
on, as there was no telling where the elephant might 
lead me to, and his services would be useful later in 
finding the best way back, but he absolutely refused 
to come a step farther. 

So I proceeded after the elephant, and presently got 
to an ant-hill about 50 yards from them. The biggest 



AMONGST THE MADI 67 

was hardly worth shooting, but there was always 
the food problem of the porters to be faced, so I de- 
cided to shoot him, which I did and he fell on his 
side. The others, instead of moving off, stood by 
him. They had useless tusks, and I did not want 
to fire again, so waited some five or ten minutes, but 
they would not go. 

I thought if I shouted they would go, but it seemed so 
ridiculous to shout all by oneself that I refrained. 
Then I bethought me of my guide; he would be an 
objective to shout at, so I descended from the eminence 
of my little ant-hill and started shouting for him. I 
looked back, and the elephants were still standing, and 
I thought what a much more penetrating voice a native 
has, and that I must get my guide to do some real 
shouting. 

After going about a hundred yards back, I looked 
round and saw the elephant moving off, and then I saw 
my guide cautiously descending the slope towards me. 
As the elephant had gone, there was no real reason why 
he should not be with me, and moreover I wanted him 
on the return journey, so I walked to meet him, as he 
came down the slope a few yards at a time listening 
and reconnoitring carefully. 

When he was about forty yards from me the fallen 
elephant emitted a dying gurgle and he stood still, 
meditating retreat. I shouted at him again, and he 
evidently thought that I was in urgent need of more 



6S HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

ammunition, as he had taken off the bandolier and held 
it out invitingly to me. Presently he advanced cau- 
tiously again, but just as he reached me, the elephant, 
now some three or four hundred yards behind me, 
emitted another terrific gurgle, so thrusting the bandolier 
into my hands he fled up the hill again. 

I then returned to the elephant and cut off the tail, 
and presently my friend appeared, reconnoitring again 
in the distance. He saw me standing by the elephant, 
and so at last prevailed on himself to come near; 
but he would not come right up to it. 

We then returned to the village, and found that the 
porters had arrived, camp was pitched, and better still, 
dinner was ready. It was after sunset, so I knew that 
no natives were likely to cut up the meat that night, 
as my guide would be much too timorous to take them 
back in the dark. 

Having suffered from the difficulties of obtaining 
porters' food, I thought that I would make certain of 
laying in a goodly store of flour next day, to harbour 
up against a run of blank days when no elephant, and 
hence no food, would be forthcoming. 

So I sent word to all the villages within a reasonable 
distance to say that we were going to make a cordon 
round the elephant next day and that no one would be 
allowed inside this ring to cut up the meat unless they 
first paid a fee in flour. Therefore they were to accom- 
pany me to the spot with their flour, and it would be 



AMONGST THE MADI 69 

taken over by my porters and they would then be al- 
lowed access to the carcass. 

Early next morning I captured my guide, to make 
certain that he did not go off and show the place where 
the elephant lay. Soon an immense crowd collected 
round my tent — Men, women, and children, and even 
little tots of about seven years of age, carrying gourds of 
flour as tribute, and baskets in which to place the meat. 
Spears and knives were being sharpened in all direc- 
tions, whilst the crowd mustered. I marshalled the 
porters with sacks ready for the reception of the flour, 
and then with my guide of the day before I led the way, 
followed by many hundred people of all sexes and ages, 
carrying the most varied assortment of weapons and 
receptacles. 

I felt so pleased with myself as I reviewed my army 
and thought of the goodly stock of flour that was pres- 
ently to be laid up against a rainy day. 

Now to find one's way about in a trackless bush is a 
peculiarly difficult and rare feat for a white man to be 
able to accomplish. Moreover, this was a very uni- 
formly rolling country, of shallow valleys and gentle 
slopes, all exactly alike, with no general feature to recog- 
nise about any of them. In one of the several hundred 
little bottoms within a ten miles' radius of camp lay 
my dead elephant. 

On my return journey the day before I had taken 
careful note of the route. I did not then know how 



70 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

wonderfully ignorant of the country just round their 
villages were these Madi. I afterwards discovered that 
they seldom dared go more than a mile or two from 
their homes for an exaggerated fear of the bravery of 
the next section of the tribe and their ferocious conduct 
should they meet with any stranger. At the time I 
had only wondered at the circuitous route by which 
my guide led me back. 

We started out by the same route, and if I had been 
solely responsible for leading the way, I should probably 
have been able to find the way back to the dead elephant 
by following religiously our return march of the day 
before, on which I had noted numbers of small land- 
marks, such as the holes in the ground, pecuHar shaped 
bushes, branching elephant tracks, etc. 
i After proceeding about a mile, my guide branched 
off from the old track. I pointed to the way v/e had 
returned, but he spoke with great volubility and pointed 
with his spear. Anyhow, I thought, it was a round- 
about way by which we had returned; it was his 
country and he had known it all his life, and who was I 
to dispute his knowledge ? He had probably thought 
of a better and shorter way. 

So we proceeded with our immense following and 
walked and walked and walked, but not a sign or 
vestige of the dead elephant did we see. The women 
and children carrying the flour and baskets presently 
got tired and returned home. Then the men began 



AMONGST THE MADI 71 

going off in different directions, and at last the guide 
sat down and said he was defeated. We then wandered 
over these hills and inspected numberless little bottoms 
each exactly like the other. 

At last I decided it was no good making blind shots, 
so I set back to strike the track by which we had re- 
turned the day before near the village. Seldom have 
I felt so small and humiliated. We must have been 
miles beyond the spot at which the elephant had been 
killed, for it was late afternoon when we reached the 
old track, and then I decided to return and await the 
morrow. 

In the evening, some of my porters who had left me 
came in with the news that they had found the ele- 
phant and secured the tusks. I had not the face to 
try again to exchange the meat for flour, but neverthe- 
less they brought me in a certain amount of their own 
accord, whilst my porters brought in sixteen loads of 
meat. These I sent over in the canoe, to the Uganda 
side of the river, where they were exchanged for flour. 

While waiting for the return of the canoe, I had an- 
other hunt after elephant on the hills behind. After 
walking about a couple of hours, I came on the tracks 
of an immense herd. They were spread over a front- 
age of half a mile or more, grazing as they went. As 
the wind was across their line of advance, from right to 
left, I followed them, always keeping to the left hand 
one of any branching tracks till I at last caught up the 



72 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

extreme left of the line. I could only see females 
and young, and they were moving at a fair pace. Fol- 
lowing on, I came up close to a little detached group 
on the left consisting of four elephants, two female and 
two young. As they tarried behind the rest of the 
line, I had to wait till they moved on, and being quite 
close to them, about 30 to 40 yards, I had a good op- 
portunity of observing them. One of the two females 
had most peculiar and abnormally shaped tusks. 
Whilst watching these, I suddenly heard loud talking 
from down wind. The African native is a noisy talker, 
and the Madi are no exception, rather the reverse, as 
they have a most peculiar way of lowering the voice 
and expelling the last word of each sentence with pro- 
digious emphasis. 

The elephant heard them and trotted off. I waited 
to see who the natives were, and found that they were 
just two men walking along a pathway having a friendly 
conversation; they had no idea that there were any 
elephants in the neighbourhood, and it was most ex- 
traordinarily bad luck that they should arrive at this 
exact spot just at this moment, especially as natives so 
seldom leave their villages in this part to go so far. 

On following on, I found that the whole herd had 
taken alarm and moved off. I had a tremendously long 
journey after them, and at last came up with them 
again in the afternoon. They were moving down the 
centre of a marshy valley in a solid phalanx, and there 



AMONGST THE MADI 73 



must have been 500 of them closely pressed together. 
I followed parallel to them, slipping and slithering 
about in the mud and having to run every now and 
again to keep up with them. Out of all that big herd 
I could not see one animal worth the shooting. 

After proceeding some time, I perceived an ant-hill 
which they must pass, and ran to reach this place be- 
fore they approached, so as to have a good look at them 
once again as they passed. The phalanx marched past 
me, the nearest about 150 yards distant. So closely 
pressed together were they that it was only possible to 
see those nearest me, but there was nothing worth a 
shot amongst these. 

As they reached abreast of me, two females had a 
quarrel, and one pursued the other out of the herd, 
prodding her with her tusks. They both came towards 
the ant-hill and stopped at about 50 yards' distance. 
This was too much for the two Baganda porters who 
were with me, and they turned tail and fled, making a 
prodigious noise, squelching and splashing through the 
mud and pools of water. The two elephants pricked 
up their ears, and the one which had been prodding 
the other came straight towards me at a brisk trot, 
evidently to see what it was. 

Had I been in Uganda I should have had to fire in 
the air or lie down and hope for the best. In the 
Congo, however, it is no crime to shoot a female, so as 
she came close up to me I dropped her. At this the 



74 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

whole herd turned off and stampeded through the 
swamp. At the same time I caught a ghmpse of an- 
other enormous herd at the top of the rise on the other 
side of the valley, a herd which must have contained 
a couple of hundred animals, so at one and the same 
time something like 700 elephant were in sight. 

A very remarkable coincidence was that the female 
who had run at me in this way, out of aU that vast 
herd, was the identical one I had noticed so specially 
earlier in the day and whose abnormally shaped tusks 
were unmistakable. 

As this herd had been alarmed now for the second 
time, it was no good following it any farther, and indeed 
there appeared to be nothing worth shooting in it. 
This being the case, I thought perhaps I might come 
up with the second herd I had seen, but they too had 
got the alarm, and I never succeeded in coming up with 
them. However, in their tracks I found two rhino 
peacefully slumbering, and shot them both. I was now 
far from camp and did not get back till long after dark. 

I have said that we were extensively fitted out with 
trade goods, but that the natives did not care much 
about them. This was only the case when we tried to 
purchase anything, such as chickens or sheep, but they 
were quite pleased to receive our goods for nothing. 
The only thing we possessed that they really seemed to 
hanker after was salt, and this was especially the case 
when we got farther inland. There they would con- 




In the Nile Swamps North of Wadelai 

The upper picture shows two natives crossing on a raft made of ambatch poles, and 
the lower a floating island of sudd. 



AMONGST THE MADI 75 



sider a spoonful of salt quite a fit remuneration for a 
day's work after elephant, whereas they would hardly 
be grateful for 10 or 20 times its value in beads or 
calico. 

Amongst our varied goods was a bundle of frock and 
tail coats, articles that we were told were indispensable 
in Congo travelling. These were really very fine 
goods, some of them were second hand, but some were 
new with the tickets on. If I remember rightly, we 
bought them at an average price of 3 rupees or 4/ - 
each in Kampala. It seems rather unfair that the 
Uganda native should only have to pay 4/ - for a 
frock coat whilst we have to pay seven guineas. 

These gifts were reserved for great occasions, some 
chief who had been very useful, or some native who 
had brought exceptional news about elephant. Prac- 
tically everybody in the interior was completely naked. 
When a clothesless savage was invested with a long- 
tailed morning coat, he presented the most comical 
appearance. He looked so very well dressed when 
walking away from one, whereas, when coming towards 
one it only accentuated his nakedness. 

However, fashions in the bush are often as fastidious in 
their way as those in civilised countries, and even these 
royal presents did not always meet with unqualified ap- 
proval. One Madi had really been very useful in bring- 
ing in news, and so when I parted from him to trek 
onwards, I produced a magnificent kind of redingote. 



76 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



He immediately donned it and pirouetted round, 
looking over his shoulder to judge the effect of the back 
view. He hit the long tails once or twice with the back 
of his hand and appeared dissatisfied with the fit. I 
asked him what was wrong, and he said that he did not 
Hke these, flapping the tails. It appeared that for 
ordinary bush wear long tails were not being worn, 
so I told him that he could cut them off if he did not 
like them. "No," he said, "that would not be the 
same" ; he wanted a coat exactly the same as the one 
I was wearing. Now in this matter I could not oblige 
him, as it was the only coat I had, except a rough one 
for evening wear, and in its way it was quite unique. 
Hunting day after day through bush and thorns 
soon tears one's clothes to pieces. I had been very 
hard up for a coat shortly before leaving Nairobi, and 
had got hold of some heather-coloured, very strong 
kind of khaki material which struck me as peculiarly 
suited in colour and texture to hunting. As I was on 
trek at the time and was not able to be measured, I 
sent the material in to a Goanese tailor with an old 
khaki uniform jacket as a pattern. While giving ex- 
pHcit instructions as to the number and position of 
pockets and manner of buttoning, I trusted to the 
aforesaid khaki jacket for general size and shape. 

Unfortunately, however, this same khaki jacket was 
very old and very shrunk, whilst the frayed edges 
further took away from its length. The result was 



AMONGST THE MADI 77 

that when I received the coat in question it fitted more 
like an Eton jacket than anything else, whilst the 
sleeves were halfway up the forearms. As the material 
was strong and durable, and there was no one to criti- 
cise my appearance, I was undaunted by these defects 
and took it into general use. It was this coat, then, 
that was envied by my native guide, and I had a good 
mind to let him have it and myself wear the tail coat. 
The only thing that dissuaded me was that the latter 
was really too dressy, and moreover had no loops for 
cartridges or convenient side pockets. 

Another great feature of our trade goods were some 
gaudily coloured bandana handkerchiefs that Hart had 
obtained. They were most attractive looking, but 
the first man to whom I gave one returned shortly 
to know how he was to wear it. It was not large 
enough to meet round the waist, and I was confronted 
with the problem of how to dress a naked man in one 
pocket handkerchief. After profound thought I de- 
vised a way. The handkerchief was knotted round 
the neck and hung in a graceful fold over the left 
shoulder. Later on the sight of men ornamented in 
this way grew quite common in the Lugware country, 
and Hart and myself always recognised at once from 
this any village which the other had visited. 

My cook, a coast Swahili, took great pleasure in 
extolling our wares. I remember him once trying to 
entice a man to sell a chicken by a display of the goods 



78 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

we had to offer. "A beautiful silk handkerchief/' 
he said, producing one of these bandanas. The 
man pawed it over and did not think he cared for 
it. "A chain of the purest gold," said the cook, 
bringing out a penny brass chain. The man fingered 
it some time and did not seem pleased with it. The 
cook held up his hands in supplication, and besought 
Allah to note the ignorance and depravity of these 
savages, who could not appreciate the rarity and worth 
of such costly articles as these. 

The same native whom I decorated with the tail 
coat was carrying my big bore for me one day, whilst I 
had the mannlicher. I wounded an elephant, and 
raced after it downhill. It was one of a small herd, 
and they performed a semicircle on the hillside amongst 
a lot of scattered bush clumps, finishing up by going 
down wind. I raced round the corner of a clump of 
bushes almost into their arms, as it were, for they had 
suddenly brought up standing. An irate female 
rushed out at me, having got my wind. There was no 
time to get away, and indeed I was out of breath, so I 
steadied her with a shot in the forehead, at which she 
turned and rejoined the herd, and they went off again. 

The native, who was not as yet tail-coated, had left 
me hurriedly when this little incident happened. To 
make up for his conduct, when we came a little later 
on the wounded elephant standing, I saw him twice 
raise the big bore, shut his eyes, give a tremendous puU 



AMONGST THE MADI 79 

on the trigger and a prodigious jump at the same time. 
As the safety catch was fortunately on, his efforts met 
with no response from the rifle, and I finished the 
animal with my mannlicher. 

He was inordinately pleased and proud of himself, 
and told me that it was he who had shot the elephant. 
When I denied this, he was most indignant, and stoutly 
maintained that I had to thank him alone for obtaining 
this elephant. His face of astonishment and chagrin 
was a picture when I opened the breech and showed 
him the two cartridges comfortably lying in their 
chambers unexploded. 

To exonerate this man from a charge of showing an 
excess of bravery I must explain that he was partly 
Alur and not wholly Madi. 



CHAPTER VI 

ABOUT BUFFALO 

The buffalo, perhaps above all big game, loves the 
true, wild, uninhabited country. He loves not man, 
his habitations, his fields, or anything to do with him. 
In North Eastern Rhodesia and Portuguese East 
Africa I found him very wary, and moreover in these 
countries it was excessively hard to pick a good bull 
out of a herd, owing to the length of the grass they 
lived in. 

After the long track up, one would, time after time, 
come on them lying down in the grass for their mid- 
day rest, with one or more cows standing up as sentries. 
The horns of the latter would be visible, but however 
one might manoeuvre it would be impossible to see a 
bull without giving the alarm to the sentinels. Once 
the alarm was given there was a general stampede, 
and in the rush and confusion the odds were very much 
against being able to see or pick out a good bull. They 
appeared to be much more wary in those countries 
than in East Africa or the Lado, where I have often 
seen them staring interestedly at one, or even coming 
a little nearer to have a better look. 

On two occasions in the former countries I have been 

80 



ABOUT BUFFALO 8i 

following buffalo when a honey guide has attached 
himself to my party, and owing to the incessant twit- 
tering given the alarm to the herd. I do not ever 
remember such an occurrence when after buffalo in 
other parts, but I have several times been close up to 
elephant accompanied by a honey guide and they have 
not taken the alarm from it. Perhaps if they were 
on the alert, they would do so, but before being alarmed 
elephant are generally very dense and deaf. 

I see that Colonel Roosevelt has assigned to me the 
statement that I consider buffalo the least dangerous 
of the five dangerous African animals, lion, elephant, 
rhino, leopard, and buffalo, a statement I certainly 
made, but with certain qualifying remarks which 
rather alter the point of view. The question as to 
which is the most dangerous game animal is always 
being asked and answered in different ways, but it has 
so many aspects, and the conditions are so varied that 
it is impossible to answer it definitely without many 
saving clauses. 

In the case I refer to I stated that, judging by the 
cases of death and maulings with which I was person- 
ally acquainted, I would put down the risks run in the 
following order; lion, elephant, rhino, leopard, and buf- 
falo. That is to say, that I have known or heard of 
more men being killed or mauled by lion than I have 
by elephant, more by elephant than by rhino, and so 
on. Thus one who visited the same countries as I 



82 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

have and shot under the same conditions would prob- 
ably take his risks in that proportion. However, I 
went on to explain that since the extermination of 
buffalo by rinderpest, there were two factors which 
tended to keep his average down, one was his scarcity 
and the other that in many countries he was considered 
royal game and so, not being hunted, the hunter did 
not put himself in the way of being mauled by him. 

During the last few years he has become more nu- 
merous, and in most countries the restrictions on shoot- 
ing him have been modified or removed, with the result 
that he has once more come to the fore as a dangerous 
animal. Since writing about him in the '^ Game of East 
Africa," there have been numbers of cases of buffalo 
maulings. Judging by the same standard as before, 
and counting only the last few years, he would perhaps 
come first, but on the other hand I have not been in a 
good lion country during these years. 

The question is really like asking which is most 
dangerous, steeplechasing or motor racing. A jockey 
would perhaps say that the former and an employe at 
Brooklands that the latter was most dangerous. A 
lighthouse keeper would not be in much danger of losing 
his life in either of these pursuits. 

Elephant shooting is so apart from all other things 
that it is impossible really to draw a comparison. With 
the lion and the buffalo we can lay down a few general 
rules. Neither the lion nor the buffalo, unless the lion 



ABOUT BUFFALO 83 

is a man-eater on the prowl, is generally dangerous 
unwounded. If wounded, both of them will probably 
make off for thick cover. However, there is a pos- 
sibility of the lion charging when hit. 

Both animals are very dangerous to follow when 
wounded, the more dangerous the thicker the cover. 
If you get within 20 yards or so of them, under these 
conditions, the chances are that they will charge, and 
the nearer you get to them the greater the chance that 
they will do so. However, both of them will as likely 
as not break away again before you get within this dis- 
tance. They will both have the advantage of being 
able to hear or see you coming whilst themselves re- 
maining motionless. The lion will be the harder to 
detect as he will probably be crouching and completely 
invisible. On the other hand, the buffalo will be the 
harder to stop of the two. 

In a country like British East Africa you will only be 
allowed to shoot one buffalo a year, but there is no 
limit to the number of lions you may shoot. On the 
other hand, you will perhaps have less difficulty in find- 
ing your one buffalo than your first lion. 

Finally, it is impossible to say which is really most 
dangerous, and it depends a lot on the carefulness or 
recklessness of the hunter. Personally I am more afraid 
of the buffalo, because I have not yet been mauled by 
him. The closest thing I had with one was when I shot 
one charging with my muzzle touching his chest. 



84 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Once I was out hoping to get a buck or two, to eke 
out my porters' rations, at a time when we were very 
hard up for food. We had done a trek that morning 
and I was just going for an evening stroll round camp 
with only soft-nosed cartridges. I was with my gun- 
bearer Tengeneza, and we were on an open plain beside 
a stream. Suddenly we saw the top of a black back 
coming up from the dip of the stream towards us. I 
sat down on the plain behind a tuft of grass which 
would hardly have given shelter to a rabbit, whilst 
Tengeneza knelt beside me. 

Presently the owner of the black back loomed into 
sight, an enormous old solitary buffalo, strolling towards 
us. He was coming so dead on that it was difficult to 
get a good shot, but finally I took aim at the side of 
the shoulder and fired. He immediately put down his 
head and came straight towards us. There was nothing 
to aim at but his massive skull, and I put my second 
barrel into that. I found out afterwards that the soft- 
nosed bullet did not penetrate more than the horny boss. 

At this he snorted and looked round and then trotted 
to a position about twenty yards to our left and stamped 
the ground and looked from left to right. Tengeneza 
put my mannlicher into my hand and I gave him a shot 
in the shoulder; at this he turned round and again 
came towards us, whilst I put another ineffectual shot 
in. If he had gone on past us another ten yards, he 
must have had our wind. 



ABOUT BUFFALO 85 

Meanwhile Tengeneza had reloaded the big bore, 
which by the way was very old and worn, and not a hard 
hitter, and exchanged it for my mannlicher as coolly 
as possible. The buffalo now came trotting across our 
front, still looking for us, whilst I put a shot in his 
right side, and then as he passed, another oblique one 
behind the shoulder. He looked round again, only now 
rather staggered, and I took the mannlicher and put 
another oblique shot in, which finally brought him 
down. 

Directly he was down I went to examine his eyes, as 
from his not having seen two figures at twenty yards on 
the open plain, I could only assume that he was stone 
blind. I found that his eyes were perfectly sound, 
and how he did not see us whilst I fired seven shots and 
exchanged rifles three times I cannot imagine. At 
every shot he snorted and looked round, and every 
moment I expected to see him come tearing at us. My 
generous thought during these moments was, ^'I hope 
he takes Tengeneza first, as it will give me a chance of 
putting a point blank shot into his side.'' 

Tengeneza was one of Neumann's donkey men. He 
was afterwards a porter on the East African Survey. 
My first acquaintance with him was when I was starting 
from the Ithanga Mountains down the bank of the 
Tana. He had been sent from another party to me 
with a letter and arrived just as we were breaking up 
camp. As all my porters had loads I gave him my 



86 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

water bottle and cartridge bag to carry. On the morn- 
ing's march I wounded a Hon. He showed such intelli- 
gent interest in following up the spoor, so unlike the 
usual professional porter, and was so cool and collected 
when we suddenly came on it in thick thorn, that I 
made him into a gunbearer from that moment. 

Since then he has trekked with me over a consider- 
able part of East Africa, through Uganda, in the Lado 
Enclave, and through Abyssinia, and he has always been 
staunch and reliable, as the above incident will show. 
Most bona fide gunbearers would have either fired or 
cut and run under similar circumstances, but Tengeneza 
was only a porter. 

It would seem as if the northern buffalo were more 
dangerous than those of the south. I refer to the Cape 
buffalo in both cases. I do not remember hearing of 
any accidents occurring with buffalo in either Portu- 
guese East Africa or North Eastern Rhodesia, and cer- 
tainly the ones I shot in those countries never showed 
any fight. I omit Nyasaland, as the buffalo was pre- 
served there whilst I was in that country. Selous too 
did not consider the buffalo a very dangerous animal, 
and in the old days when thousands of buffaloes were 
shot in South Africa fatalities were very few. 

In the north, however, I have heard of numbers of 
accidents occurring in British East Africa, Uganda, and 
the Sudan, with the same buffalo, the Cape buffalo, 
although in some cases it was not definitely proved which 



ABOUT BUFFALO 87 



species of buffalo it was. Also in the north I have 
seen time after time that impudent stare, and the com- 
ing nearer to have a better look which I do not remem- 
ber in the south, although the sentinels would of course 
stare till they had made out what you were, and then 
they were off like lightning. 

The Abyssinians have a great respect for the buffalo, 
and used, I believe, to count the killing of a buffalo as 
equal to that of six men in their awards for valour. 
Their buffalo is of course the Abyssinian buffalo, which 
bears a smaller head than the Cape one. 

I brought a very fine Cape buffalo head through 
Abyssinia, from south to north, which I had shot on 
the way up. Everybody we passed on the road used 
to stop and turn round and stare at it as it was carried 
along on a porter's head. They were greatly astonished 
at its size, and one Abyssinian offered to exchange it for 
his mule. 

The safest and easiest way I have ever heard of 
shooting buffalo was that practised by some Abyssinian 
hunters. There is an oasis called by the Borana 
^^Gamra," which I discovered in the desert south of 
Abyssinia. It consists of a pool of water welling out 
of the sand. There is no other water for many miles 
in every direction, and the game come from very far to 
drink at this spot at night. 

A party of Abyssinian hunters had made a stockade 
on a little patch of dry ground in the middle of the pool. 



8S HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



inside which to await game. The bones of Hon, buffalo, 
and Oryx lying all round testified to the success of their 
manoeuvre. 

Towards the end of 191 1 there was an outbreak of 
what was said to be rinderpest, which sw^ept down the 
east bank of the Nile north of Lake Albert. About 
Nimule and Gondokoro the natives lost 80 or 90 per 
cent of their cattle. At the same time quantities of 
buffalo collected at the north end of Uganda between 
Gondokoro and Mongalla, and probably hundreds died 
in quite a small area. 

Where all the buffalo collected from is not known, 
but for a few days there was a great number, and the 
district was dotted with dead carcasses. Then they 
disappeared; the natives said that they had collected 
in a great herd, and all trekked off towards Abyssinia. 
At the beginning of 191 2, however, buffalo were observed 
to be in their old haunts again, though probably in 
reduced numbers, so these collected together must 
have broken up again. 

Of late years there has been a lot of hair-splitting in 
the subdi\dsion of buffalo into countless different 
varieties judged by differences in shape or structure of 
the horns. I do not pretend to have scientifically 
studied the subject, but any practical naturalist who 
has observed and shot buffalo will agree that in any 
herd of buft'alo there are many different shapes of horns, 
and that moreover the appearance differs enormously 



ABOUT BUFFALO 89 

according to the age of its possessor. When one reads 
that the length of the smooth tips of the horns is in- 
dicative of one variety, the extreme flatness of the basal 
portion of another, shorter tips another, massive bosses, 
tips rapidly diminishing in diameter, tips long and 
tapering and so on and so forth, each distinctive of a 
variety, one becomes a little sceptical if such charac- 
teristics really do denote different varieties. Not 
only are all the characteristics above displayed in the 
buffaloes of one herd but a single old buffalo may have, 
at different times of its life, answered to all or nearly all 
these descriptions. He starts with the smooth horns, 
which gradually get more corrugated at the bosses. 
They then become horns with long, smooth tips ; later 
the coruscations reach farther up the horn and the 
bosses become more massive, whilst the points are long 
and tapering. Later he will, by fighting or digging up 
salt earth, blunt, wear down, and shorten the tips till 
they are rapidly diminishing in diameter, and finally, 
if he lives long enough, or fights incessantly enough, he 
will wear the bosses of his horns smooth and flat. 

I admit that horns are as a rule wonderfully good 
indications of varieties and species, as is instanced by 
the varieties of grant and hartebeest, which can usually 
be detected by their horns alone. However, in the case 
of the buffalo, any such deductions should be based on a 
great mass of evidence, that is to say, numbers of horns 
from each area suspected of producing a variety. 



90 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Perhaps amongst all the hollow-horned ruminants the 
buffalo is most variable in the shape of the horns of 
individuals and of the same individual at different 
times of its existence. 

Again the case of the points turning upwards, down- 
wards, inwards or outwards is also adduced as typical 
of varieties. With an animal who knocks his horns about 
so much as a buffalo, I hold that some small deviations 
in the direction of the points are due to accidents of 
youth. A slight dent or chip at the tip, when the horn 
is growing, will often tend to make it take a slightly 
different direction, although I admit that any great 
variation in any direction from the normal is unlikely 
to have been caused to both horns identically. 

The Dinkas usually have a pet, and perhaps half 
sacred, bull in every kraal. This animal, from the time 
it is a calf, is treated quite differently from all others. It 
is tied up in a special place, especially looked after and 
fed, and is the playmate of the children. It can be 
recognised at a glance, as the tip of one horn grows 
downward and the other upward. This growth is 
caused by cutting or shaving off the underside of 
one horn and the upper side of the other when it is 
a calf. 

Similarly, I take it, in a buffalo a chip or bruise on the 
horn tips in early life would materially affect the sub- 
sequent growth of the horn. Also a buffalo given from 
an early age to dig up earth for salt, or perhaps one 




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ABOUT BUFFx\LO 91 



living in a locality with especially hard soil would have 
materially blunted and shortened horns. 

Perhaps the critic might say that all buffalo Hving in 
a given locality would be affected equally by such a 
consideration, but such is not the case. Apart from the 
buffalo, the African ruminant that is in the habit of 
blunting its horns to the greatest extent is the roan. 
In the same herd I have shot a roan with long, tapering 
tips and one with horns perhaps six inches shorter than 
they would have been if allowed to grow naturally, — 
horns tapering almost like a sable's, and horns blunted 
to a stump. 

The females and young of buffalo are, as amongst 
most game animals, lighter coloured than the adult 
male. This is not so noticeable with the Cape Buffalo 
as it is with the Congo, in which species the young are of 
quite a reddish colour whilst only the old bulls show up 
as black. 

The buffalo is perhaps more dependent on water 
than any other game animal, save those types which 
are more or less amphibious, viz., Lechwe and Situtunga. 
He is seldom found far from water, and when the sun is 
hot often drinks several times during the day. 

Nearly all game seem to object to the smell of the 
human being much more than the sight. As said 
above, the buffalo will often stare in an interested way 
on seeing one. When he finally decides to go off he will 
perhaps only go a short distance and then wheel round 



92 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

again to have another look. This seems to be especially 
the case in the north. 

Whilst following elephant spoor in the Lado once, 
through a bamboo country, I met a herd of buffalo 
walking towards me. I was unwilling to make a noise 
for fear that the elephant might be near, and for the 
same reason I did not wish to stampede the buffalo up 
the elephants' tracks, as they often make a tremendous 
noise stampeding, especially in bamboo. So I waited 
to one side of the track, and when the leading ones 
came level with me, I showed myself, hoping that they 
would go off to a flank. 

However, after having gazed at me for a bit, they 
stampeded back up the elephant track in a leisurely 
way. After proceeding a few hundred yards I found 
them grazing, this time a little to one side of the track. 
I waved my arms at them, but they only stood and 
stared, and it was not till I got well within the hundred 
yards that they went off again. Not far on, I met them 
again for the third time, but this time they went off to 
one side and left the elephant track. On the other 
hand, if they smell one, they generally stampede in 
earnest and sometimes even the smell of one's tracks 
is enough to set them off. 

I believe that the sense of smell is in much more 
direct connection with the brain than the sense of sight. 
Even with us human beings, who have lost this sense 
to a great extent, there is nothing like a scent to sud- 



ABOUT BUFFALO 93 

denly and vividly recall forgotten memories. A sound 
and sight will appear familiar but the mind will gener- 
ally have to grope after what it recalls, whilst with a 
scent the memory is an instantaneous flash. Perhaps 
this, then, is the reason why the duUer-witted beast re- 
sponds so much more quickly, and is so much more 
affected by the sudden, noxious smell of the human 
being than he is by his sight. 



CHAPTER VII 

AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 

In most parts of tropical Africa the year is divided 
into a dry and a wet season. During the dry season 
the land is parched, the tall grass dies and is burnt, and 
the bush fires shrivel up the leaves of the trees. The 
air is full of dust and ashes, the sun shines in a cloudless 
sky, and long marches have to be made between water- 
holes, which as often as not contain nothing but foul 
mud. 

At the beginning of the rains all is changed, the trees 
put out fresh leaves, green grass springs up everjrwhere, 
at first not long enough to be a hindrance, and the air 
is cooled by the first showers. As the rains continue, 
however, the grass grows up rank and tall, all low-lying 
country turns into swamp, through which the traveller 
has to wade ankle or knee deep in mud, sometimes for 
hours at a stretch, and the numerous rivers and water- 
courses in flood form serious obstacles to progress. 
This splashing through slippery mud is most fatiguing 
and exasperating, besides being conducive to fever, 
rheumatism, and ruination of boot leather. One of the 
most unpleasant treks I have made was down the Nile 
bank in the Lado Enclave at the end of a very wet year. 

94 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 95 

Every few miles one had to cross a broad swamp, and as 
often as not, on arriving at the current or stream which 
fed it, one would find, if there had been heavy rain during 
the last day or two, that it was too deep to ford, and one 
must raft all one's things across. 

I was coming down from Mount Wati to Dufile, which 
station then had been abandoned by the Belgians only 
a few years back. On reaching the Koshi River I found 
that it was in flood. The local natives produced an 
ambatch raft and after two and a half hours' work 
everything was got safely across. We then marched 
on for three hours and rested, and then did another 
hour, which brought us to an enormous swamp in our 
path, lying in a flat-bottomed valley filled with water 
and reeds. 

We started crossing at 2 p. m., and after two hours of 
slipping and struggling in the water and mud, some- 
times chest deep, and sometimes only knee deep, we had 
the satisfaction of seeing the soHd, dry bank of the 
other side only a few hundred yards off. In another 
ten minutes, I thought, the wretched porters who had 
been going all day and who had been wallowing through 
miles of mud without being able to put down their loads, 
would be able to have a rest. 

However, at this moment we suddenly struck the 
current or channel of the original watercourse which 
supplied the swamp, and it was over one's head. I 
called a halt and they had to stand with their loads on 



96 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

their heads, waist deep in water, whilst I reconnoitred 
up and down to see if I could find a fordable place. 
The men carrying tusks had the laugh over their 
fellows, as they were able to stand their burdens up on 
end in the water. 

I tried in several places, but without result; once I 
suddenly slipped into deep water and sank like a plum- 
met, and only managed to pull myself up again by 
clutching at the reeds. I never made out the reason 
for this, as I did not come up after reaching the bottom; 
perhaps the water bulged out my open shirt and acted 
on the principle of the parachute reversed. Meanwhile, 
the sun sank inexorably; now there was only another 
hour of sunlight left and two hours of swamp behind 
us if we were to retrace our steps to the bank we 
had come from. 

Whilst wondering what to do we heard the sound of 
a drum from the hill above us; there was evidently a 
village there. It was no good shouting, as the people 
were so timid and suspicious of strangers that it would 
only have driven them away. They appeared always 
in constant fear of attack till their fears were allayed. 
As nearly every village was at that time hostile to its 
neighbour, we found it almost impossible to get any 
accurate information about the people ahead, or the 
route, and generally had to go blindly on in the direc- 
tion in which one wished to go. Moreover, on suddenly 
appearing in a new village, there was always the uncer- 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 97 

tainty of how one would be greeted. Sometimes, every 
soul in the village would fly into the bush. At other 
times, the women would go and the men remain and be 
just sullcy, refusing to do anything for one; occasionally 
they would be most friendly. They were always 
friendly in the long run, but it sometimes took a few 
days to accomplish this result. 

I was the only one amongst my whole party who 
could swim, so the alternatives which offered were, 
that I should swim across and try to get help, or that 
we should all return. As the porters were chiefly 
affected, I put it to them, "Shall we go back and 
camp the other side and have all this crossing to do 
again to-morrow, or shall I leave you here and see if 
I can get help?" 

They one and all decided on the latter, so I took off 
all my clothes, excepting a thin vest, swam across, and 
made my way up the opposite hill in the direction from 
which the drumbeats had seemed to come. Pres- 
ently I saw two men walking along; they had not seen 
me, so I followed them quietly till we came in sight of a 
village, and then called to them. They stared for a bit 
and commenced to run. 

At any rate, it would be a difflcult business to rush 
into a strange and possibly hostile village and make the 
natives bustle out immediately to help one out of a 
predicament, especially when only knowing a few words 
of a language, which they might or might not also 



98 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

know. It seemed almost impossible that I would be 
able to prevail on them to bring help to my unfor- 
tunate porters before dark. The native is usually so 
slow and wants to talk such a lot first, and now every 
minute was of importance. Moreover, one cannot be 
said to be quite at one^s best when making a first appear- 
ance in a new society practically naked. I called 
again to the two men, and they seemed half inclined 
to stop, so I hurried on and entered the zariba of the 
village just behind them. There were several men 
standing about, and fortunately I saw a log of am- 
batch lying on the ground, so I pointed to it and 
trotted out the few words of Bangala I then knew. 
^^ Porters, big water, presents, calico." I then jostled 
the man I took to be the chief out of the village and 
pointed towards the swamp, and in five minutes I was 
on my way back with twenty or so men and ambatch 
enough for a raft. 

We reached my porters just after sunset and got 
everything across the intervening space of deep water, 
which only proved to be about twenty yards wide, be- 
fore it was quite dark. The villagers played up well, 
and it was very lucky that they were a willing and intel- 
ligent lot. 

I took good care after this experience to obtain some 
ambatch of my own, as soon as I reached a spot where 
it was procurable, and after that always trekked about 
with sufiicient to make an emergency raft. The 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 99 

ambatch is a kind of thorn tree which grows in water or 
swamp. Its wood is a sort of pith and so Hght that 
what appears to be a great baulk of wood can be bal- 
anced on one finger. 

One reads in the boys' story books that the hunter, 
when he comes to a river, cuts down trees and makes a 
raft on the spot. In Africa any wood that I have tried, 
freshly cut in this way, immediately sinks to the bottom 
or floats under water. Fallen and dead trees are eaten 
by white ants or burnt in the annual bush fires, and so 
the chances are that there is no dead or dry timber 
available. 

I used to carry eleven poles of ambatch, two of which 
were cut in half. This made a load for one porter. 
When we came to an unfordable stream, if the current 
was not too swift, we used to 
lash these into a raft with the 
porters' sticks as crosspieces. 
The nine full length logs were 

' M i. 

lashed together at the base, ^*^^"'" 

whilst the four halves were built up in a platform at 

one end, as in the diagrams. 

This would just take one load high and dry out of 
the water lashed on to the platform, or one porter lying 
along the raft, with the water lapping over him. The 
raft is propelled by a man swimming behind. The 
reason that the load is lashed on the forward end and 
not the middle is that the swimmer rests his hands, and 




loo HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

part of his weight, on the rear end, which counter- 
balances the load. 

Naturally, crossing the loads one by one was a very 
slow process, and if the river were at all wide, lasted 

^•J^oad restshen 
I V y I 

' ^ (^. — J Swimmer 

Bamboo or/cA ■•■■. pushes h ere : 

K- ■ ''' 




Side Elevation 

most of the day, as at each crossing the raft would be 
taken by the current to a point on the opposite bank 
several hundred yards down-stream of its starting 
point. It would then have to be taken out, carried up- 
stream again, and crossed back to the near bank. 

I was coming up the Uganda bank of the Nile once, 
when I reached a river so heavily in flood that it was 
then impossible to cross. As I was in a hurry, I con- 
ceived the project of rounding the mouth in canoes by 
way of the Nile. The next thing was to procure canoes. 
The native is always very chary about lending his 
canoes in this part, and hides them in the sudd. 

I struck a village on the bank and the natives said, as 
usual, that they had no canoes. I knew that they had, 
as I saw fish and fish traps in the village. After hours 
of discussion and promises of presents, they admitted 
having two and said that they would bring them for me. 
They assured me, however, that I had come to quite 
the wrong place for canoes, the place for them being a 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS loi 

village on the Nile the other side of the impassable 
river. Not only had the chief there an unlimited num- 
ber of canoes but he had big ones which would hold 
many men. The land flowing with milk and honey is 
always just ahead according to the native. 

After a long and aggravating delay, finally a small 
and very leaky canoe was produced. I decided to go 
on in this and found that it would just take my tent, 
one box, and my cook besides myself and the paddler. 
I told the head man to try to procure more and come 
on with them, whilst I would try and get some ahead 
and send them back. 

It was impossible to tell how far it was to our destina- 
tion, as the channels in the sudd wind so and sometimes 
take one right over to the opposite bank, several miles 
distant, and back again, to progress only a mile or two 
up-stream. We started in the afternoon, and by night- 
fall found ourselves in the middle of the Nile with sev- 
eral miles of sudd between us and the bank on either 
side. The only thing to do was to push into a clump of 
papyrus, and wait there till morning. 

If I ever spent a more uncomfortable night I cannot 
remember it. The various holes in the canoe had been 
stuffed up with mud, which came out in the dark, and 
we had to spend all night baling whilst sitting in a 
few inches of muddy water at the bottom of the 
canoe. The mosquitoes buzzed in clouds, and the 
hippopotamus splashed round, and there was always 



I02 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the uncomforting reflection that one might get inquisi- 
tive and investigate our craft. I had no tobacco 
and no food. To add to our misery it commenced 
to rain, and the clouds made the night absolutely 
dark. 

At the first streak of dawn, we had a final bale out 
and plugged up the holes once more and then set sail 
and reached our destination in a couple of hours. No 
sooner had we got the tent on shore and commenced 
putting it up than a fearful thunderstorm burst, all 
the villagers fled for their houses, and left the cook and 
myself wrestling with the tent in a gale of wind. 

It only lasted half an hour, and then the sun came out 
and I got hold of the local chief. He pursued quite 
different tactics to the others. Yes, he had a few 
canoes, they would be here in a minute ; we waited an 
hour, and no canoes came. "Where were they?" 
"Oh, just coming.'^ Another hour and nothing came. 
Meanwhile I was foodless, and my porters patiently 
awaiting the arrival of the canoes I had promised to 
send, and probably not liking to help themselves to 
their rations as I was not present to give them out. 

I hate using drastic methods with natives, but there is 
a limit to one's forbearance. At the end of the second 
hour, I asked where the canoes were. The chief said 
"just coming," so I caught hold of him, and holding his 
arms behind his back, told him that if he did not tell 
his people to produce the canoes at once, I was going 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 103 

to beat him till he would be unable to walk or stand 
or sit ever again. 

The canoes appeared like magic, and were despatched 
for the porters, and then I set to work to lay all the 
things in my box out to dry in the sun. 

Fortunately my papers on the top were dry. 

The reader may ask why I did not bring a box of food 
instead of the tent or papers. There was only room 
for a couple of loads in the canoe. I took the tent, 
making sure we should arrive that night, and I did not 
relish spending it in the open as it was then raining 
every night. The box contained my money, diary, 
and writings, and I never parted from it. I obtained 
a chicken at the village which I cooked spatch- 
cock, and some dura flour which I ate out of half a 
gourd. 

In the evening my things turned up, everything wet 
through, gun cases, trade salt, porters' food, trade 
goods, but this was only what had constantly happened 
before. One of the canoes containing porters had sunk 
on the way, at least it had filled with water and 
remained floating with its gunwales level with the 
surface and the porters holding on to it, till they were 
rescued by other canoes. 

The African canoe is always the dirtiest, most leaky, 
and ramshackle conveyance imaginable. It is cum- 
brous, yet seldom stable. At every crossing one holds 
one's breath as the rocky, leaking vessel containing 



I04 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

one's hard-earned tusks or box of valuables meets the 
current, and rocks too and fro. It is always with 
the greatest relief that one lands the last load on the 
far bank. 

Near Nimule there is a crossing at a narrow place 
where the stream of the Nile is very strong. The canoes 
are very narrow at the top, and broaden out below. 
The opening at the top is but a narrow slit and the 
passenger has to squirm in sideways to get his hips 
into the body of the boat. He then takes his seat in 
the usual two inches of muddy water at the bottom, 
and the canoe is pushed out into the current, swaying 
dangerously. The traveller, however good a swimmer 
he may be, must now sink or swim with the canoe, for 
if it capsizes he is successfully pinned inside, caught 
by the hips, so that it would be impossible to slip out. 
There appear to be no new canoes in Africa. They 
are all of vast antiquity, the wood is rotten and cracked, 
and they all leak. I only remember one exception, 
and then by the extraordinary fatality which insists 
on the smaller African canoes being the height of 
discomfort, I was not enabled to have a clean or dry 
passage. 

I was on one of the rivers which flow into Lake Bang- 
weolo (this lake is called Wemba by the natives), and 
wanted to cross to the other side, so the head man of 
the village took me down to the river's edge, and hailed 
one of two canoes which were fishing a little way off 




Floating Mv Tem across a Swollen River on a Raft 




The African Canoe propelled by a Pole 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 105 

the shore. It came into the bank, and behold it was 
a brand new one, clean and dry, the first I had ever 
seen. 

Whilst marvelling at this, the fisherman went off to 
the village with the paddle; it never struck him that 
we should require a paddle with the canoe. The 
head man rushed after him and I waited, contemplat- 
ing with pleasure the first dry canoe journey I was 
to have. 

At this moment a native from the village arrived 
at the river's edge with an enormous gourd with which 
to draw water. The water was shallow and muddy 
near the bank, and seeing a canoe to hand he stepped 
into it and walking to the far end, leant over and filled 
his gourd from the deeper and cleaner water. Having 
done so, he turned round and fell flat on his face in the 
bottom of the canoe, breaking his gourd and filling the 
bottom with water. This is the nearest I have ever 
been to having an absolutely dry canoe journey, ex- 
cept on those rare occasions when one meets a canoe 
big and stable enough to carry one sitting on a tent 
or box. 

The natives about Bangweolo did not seem to have 
the same objection as those of the Nile to lending 
their canoes. They were always ready and willing to 
do their best. At one place, the Lulingira River, I gave 
out one evening to a miserable little village that I 
wanted to cross next day. As they only had one canoe, 



io6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

they immediately sent word to the villages up and 
down stream to send their craft, and in the morning 
I found a fleet of four drawn up ready, the best that 
could be produced in the locality. 

The flagship had nothing particularly wrong about 
it, except that it leaked badly. It could carry two of 
my porters across at a time. The next best would 
take one man and one box. The third seemed to 
have been torpedoed, as there was a great gap on the 
starboard side. However, it would carry one man if he 
leant out to the port side, so as to keep the broken part 
out of the water. The fourth and last had its bow 
broken away. This would also hold one man if he sat 
right aft, so as to tilt the broken nose above water. 

So long as a canoe can be plugged or made to keep 
above water at aU, it never occurs to the native to make 
another. One would think that a tribe or village that 
subsisted almost entirely on fish would be careful al- 
ways to have a serviceable canoe ; but they prefer to go 
on for years with half a canoe, rather than go to the 
trouble of making a new one. 

One of the most trying native paths I have ever 
walked on, I think, was one across the Bangweolo flats 
between these rivers flowing into the lake. It was only 
from four to six inches wide and worn to about the same 
distance below the level of the surface. It was much 
worse than walking on a railway line, as the path was 
waggling and one had to lift one's feet so high. Walk 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 107 

one ever so wisely, every few steps one would kick one's 
own ankles and stumble against the side of the path. 
Yet was the path preferable to the country on either 
side, which was all hummocks, tufts, and sun cracks. 

The native idea of fishing is very comical to one 
accustomed to the fly and wary fish. The possibility 
of the fish being frightened away never seems to occur 
to him. He does not walk up the stream and find some 
quiet, secluded nook in which to practise his art. He 
takes a thick, home-made bit of cord, fastens to it a 
clumsy great hook, by means of a series of knots which 
form a lump as big as a marble, and goes down to the 
public drinking place, the ford, or the ferry. 

He then hooks on a bit of meat or pulse, throws it 
into the river, and sits down to await results, as likely 
as not holding the line with his toes. That four or 
five men are splashing and bathing in the same spot, a 
constant stream of women washing and filling their 
water pots, a crowd of people shouting and talking, 
and canoes passing backwards and forwards, only adds 
to the cheerfulness of the scene. It does not, in his 
opinion, militate against his chances of success. 

Perhaps he is right ; he manages occasionally to catch 
fish, and possibly this is how the fish like their bait 
offered. These fish are so wonderfully unsophisticated 
in some ways and yet very shy in others ; perhaps they 
are used to the noise and the splashing and shouting at 
the fords. I know that in the secluded nooks I have 



io8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



often found them very shy and ready to dart off at once 
if one's shadow falls on the water. Here, probably, they 
are on the lookout for crocodiles and other enemies. 

In the ford when one is wading across with a large 
party of porters, they are sometimes so Httle alarmed 
that they come and nibble at one's toes. I remember 
once on the Tana River, when wading in with a mob of 
shouting porters to pull out a hippo, everybody was 
dancing as the fish were tickling their toes. 

The only place where I have seen anything like scien- 
tific fishing is on the Victoria Nile. There the natives 
cut long, tapering rods, almost like fly rods, and fish 
with very fine lines. They bait with grasshoppers 
and throw the insect out almost like a fly, and then 
keep it moving in the water to make it look as if the 
animal was kicking. I have watched them fishing 
like this at Fajao, just below the magnificent Murchin- 
son Falls. Even with this display of science, they do 
not appear to be very successful and perhaps only 
catch three or four half-pounders during an afternoon's 
fishing. 

Just below the ferry at Fajao there used to be, and 
perhaps is still, a most remarkable number of crocodiles. 
There was one little bay where they used to lie out on 
the bank in hundreds, closely packed together. If one 
suddenly came round the corner, one's first impression 
was that the whole bank was slipping down into the 
river. This effect was caused by a living mass of 



AFRICAN RIVERS AND SWAMPS 109 

perhaps several hundred disturbed crocodiles, hurrying 
back into the water. 

Of other methods of native fishing, the most usual 
are netting and spearing. The Dinkas are very good 
at spearing. A canoe is paddled silently round the 
creeks and corners of the sudd, the paddler sitting at 
the stern, whilst in the bow the spearer kneels motion- 
less with weapon poised. Directly he sees a ripple on 
the water, indicative of a fish being suddenly disturbed, 
he hurls the spear. The haft is fastened to the bow by 
a bit of rope, so that it can be recovered after each 
throw. Of course he does not hit his fish every time 
or nearly every time. 

The basket-work kind of lobster pot is very common 
in Africa. It resembles an enormous safety ink-pot 
made of wicker. This is placed in running water in a 
narrow channel, and the rest of the channel is blocked 
with stakes or hurdle work. The fish follow up the 
obstruction to find a way through, meet the aperture 
of the lobster pot, swim in and cannot find the way 
out again. 

Sometimes an arm of the river is staked across during 
the rains. When the dry weather comes, the water 
dries up or recedes and the fish are unable to get out. 
The throw net is used on the Nile about Khartoum 
but not by any of the more savage tribes. It was prob- 
ably introduced by the Arabs and requires considerable 
dexterity to use well. It consists of a square, flat net 



no HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

surrounded by weights and with a bag or pocket in the 
middle. The skilful thrower gathers it together and 
throws it so that it spreads out flat in the air and de- 
scends over a shoal of fish. The weights hold the edge 
of the net to the ground, and the net is then drawn in 
\\dth a cord and the fish who have failed to swim under 
the edges are found in the pocket. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 

One of the features of African travel, which has a 
fascination of its own, is the extremes which one 
suffers, extremes of heat and cold, exhilaration and de- 
spondency, comfort and misery. If it were not for the 
times of hunger, thirst, weariness, and discomfort, one 
would never appreciate to their full extent the more 
favorable periods. 

I once read of a traveller trekking across the swelter- 
ing plains of Mexico and meeting with a clear, cold 
stream fed by Orisava's snows. Often while trekking 
in sultry climes, I have wished that nature would be 
more generous in this provision of iced drinks for tropi- 
cal regions, and have longed to experience the same 
sensation. Then one day I met with the same phe- 
nomenon. Whilst trekking across the open, glaring 
plains south of Embu, I met with a clear torrent from 
Mount Kenya, so cold that it was almost painful to 
drink. 

Perhaps the best natural drink I have had before 

that was on one hot, scorching day when meeting with 

a cold stream from the Muchinga Mountains in North 

Eastern Rhodesia. 

Ill 



112 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Once, whilst escorting a convoy of baggage camels 
up the Sheikh Pass in Somaliland, I had to return again 
and bring up those that had given out on the way up. 
It was a very hot day, and as I nearly reached the sum- 
mit for the second time, I espied a little karia perched 
on the side of the mountain, so vertically under a steep 
wall of rock that the sun had not yet touched it, al- 
though it was mid-day. I sent down to it, and a vessel 
of beautiful cold milk was brought up to me. 

It is very pleasant, after a sojourn in an arid, 
parched, low country, to climb the hills and experience 
the cool mountain breezes. After hunting in a tem- 
perature of 104° in the Loangwa Valley, nothing can 
describe the exhilaration felt, after performing the long 
climb, to find oneself on the top of a range like the 
Muchinga. The sun is indeed hot at these altitudes, 
but there are shady trees under which to rest, and be 
refreshed by the cool breezes. 

Sometimes the extremes of heat and cold are too 
marked to be pleasant. When elephant hunting in 
Uganda, one faces daily a cold shower-bath, while push- 
ing through the long grass dripping with dew before 
the sun rises, A little later the sun is up and one is 
scorched and dry. 

Often in the Lado, I have been wearily dragging my- 
self along, wet through with perspiration, after a breath- 
less day, with eyes aching from the glare, when one of 
those thunderstorms which roll up so quickly have 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 113 

suddenly broken. They are preluded by a violent 
hurricane and accompanied by a terrific downpour, and 
in a moment one is wet through and shivering with 
cold. 

The change from dejection to pleasure when one 
suddenly sees one's camp fire, whilst stumbling along 
in the dark, is worth undergoing much discomfort to 
experience. One moment one expects to have to lie 
down wet and hungry in the bush, and the next, one 
knows that food, a hot bath, and a comfortable chair 
are close at hand. 

Whilst travelling down the Nile, I proceeded in my 
invaluable canoe one day, leaving my porters to come 
by land. As the natives, at the village from which we 
started, were not on friendly terms with those of the 
next, we could get no information about the country 
ahead or the winding channels in the sudd. We started 
gayly in our canoe and the channel soon took us out 
into the centre of the papyrus swamps, some miles 
from the shore on either side. We travelled down and 
down but could not get into the shore. 

At last we espied a hippo run or path through the 
sudd, which we thought feasible, and with immense 
labour pushed and propelled our craft through the 
obstructing reeds till we came out on a lagoon in the 
swamp. We crossed this and saw the rising bank of 
the shore not more than a few hundred yards from us ; 
but between us and it was a dense mass of reeds 



114 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



through which we could find no way. By dint of hack- 
ing at the reeds and puUing and pushing, we at last 
managed to get in to the shore after a couple of hours' 
hard work. 

The two Bagandas in the canoe had their food, cook- 
ing pots, and blankets, but I had none of the creature 
comforts which are necessary to a white man in a tropi- 
cal country, so I left them in charge of the canoe and 
set off to look for my camp. 

I reckoned that we must have come a good deal 
farther than the porters, and so my search must be 
conducted up-stream. After a few minutes I came on 
a path which led me to a village. I could get no infor- 
mation here about my camp and so took a path leading 
southwards. 

It was now well on in the afternoon, and about two 
hours' walking brought me to one of those very un- 
pleasant swamps which abound beside the Nile in this 
part, and are especially bad in the rains. This one was 
half a mile or so across, and like most of them consisted 
of thick reeds and papyrus through which Vv^riggled a 
narrow path, sometimes only ankle deep in mud, but 
generally with a foot or so of water over the mud. 

These "paths" consist of a number of uneven holes 
made by the feet of elephants. It is impossible to see 
one's foothold, owing to mud and water. At one mo- 
ment one sinks into a deep hole and the next one strikes 
a mound under water. Worse still is it when one treads 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 115 

just on the edge of one of these deep elephant foot- 
prints and sHdes suddenly to the bottom, clutching 
v/ildly at the reeds on either side. On recovering one's 
balance one's hands are covered with a downlike growth 
of hundreds of minute little hairs, which have come off 
the stem of the reeds and enter the pores of the skin 
sufficiently to cause irritation, especially when any- 
thing is handled. To remove these, a pair of tweezers 
and a few hours to spare are necessary. 

Progress is slow in these swamps, and as I reached 
the centre and saw the sun set, my position was not of 
the pleasantest. I was two hours and a half from the 
last village, wet, tired, hungry, and alone, up to my 
knees in evil-smelling mud, and without the faintest 
conception of where my camp was. 

I struggled on till I had nearly reached the opposite 
side, which consisted of a sharply rising bluff, perhaps 
fifty feet in height, but here I met another obstacle, 
and that was the current of the stream which caused 
the swamp. There was a fast swirl of muddy water 
about ten yards across, and then the reeds again, and 
just beyond that, the hard, firm bank. 

Holding my rifle over my head, I plunged through, 
half -swimming, half-floundering at the bottom, caught 
some papyrus the other side, and was soon out of the 
swamp on dry ground. At this moment, I heard the 
sound of an axe just above me, and as I reached the 
top, I saw the comforting sight of my green tent and the 



ii6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

porters' small white ones within a few yards of me, and 
my cook crouching over the fire, busy with his cooking 
pots. 

A most unpleasant disappointment, which I have 
twice met with, is to see an elephant standing broad- 
side on, showing a nice sized tusk. One shoots and he 
falls over in the thick grass. One runs up to see what 
his tusks are really like at close quarters and to measure 
them, when, to one's bewilderment and dismay, one 
finds no tusks. 

This is the first sensation, but in another moment 
one realises what it is. He is a one- tusker and as he first 
stood presenting his one tusk, one naturally concluded 
that the other is like it. When he falls, he falls on 
his one tusk, concealing it from view, whilst his tuskless 
side remains upwards. 

I experienced an even more unpleasant surprise 
whilst shooting in Nyasaland. It was at the beginning 
of a new license, and so I had a whole year before me 
in which to get my two elephants. I left the station of 
Fort Manning and camped at a village twenty-five or 
thirty miles distant. The same night, elephants came 
into the plantations, to eat the maize, and I got up quite 
close to one. I could see his tusks shining white, but 
it was quite impossible to judge their size in the dark, 
and equally impossible to see by the starlight well 
enough to select a vital shot, so I returned to my tent. 

Next morning I went out into the fields and found two 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 117 

elephants on the extreme edge of the plantations, who 
had dallied behind for a last munch of the maize. They 
both had nice tusks, about fifty pounds, which iri those 
days and in that locality, I considered very fair. As 
they stood pulling up the stalks by the roots, I fired 
twice, killing one and wounding the second. 

I stopped a moment to make sure of the one on the 
ground, and then hurried after the wounded one. 
Neither my trackers nor myself had any doubts that 
we were on the right track, but it appeared afterwards 
that we had got on the wrong spoor. It led us into 
thick grass, it was quite fresh and a large footprint. 
We hurried on for about half an hour and there he was 
right enough, for we caught a glimpse of his massive 
stern moving through the grass in front. 

We followed him, just keeping up with his leisurely 
stroll, which forced us to run at intervals not to lose 
ground. The track wound about in the grass and 
several times, when we got into a straighter bit, we 
caught another glimpse of the enormous hindquarters, 
but nothing more could be seen because of the dense- 
ness of the grass and the fact that he was walking 
away from us. 

Suddenly, without any warning, he whipped round 
and with a loud trumpet galloped down on us with trunk 
raised above his head. Perhaps he was thirty yards dis- 
tant when he turned. I seemed only just to have time to 
get my rifle to the shoulder and the safety catch turned 



ii8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

over when he was ten yards off. In this thick grass, it 
is only possible to proceed on the path broken down 
by elephant or rhino, and so I stood my ground, not 
from any mistaken sense of bravery, but because it was 
impossible to do otherwise. 

The elephant, having his trunk raised high, was ex- 
posing his chest, and so I fired with my mannlicher into 
its centre. He swerved at the shot, crashed into the 
grass, and fell on his fore knees a few yards to my right, 
whilst I pumped two or three shots into his shoulder 
to make certain that he did not rise again. 

It had all happened so quickly and I had been so 
intent on the heart shot, that no thought of the tusks 
ever crossed my mind; if it did, had I not seen just be- 
fore that they were a nice pair ? It was only when I 
heard a wail from Matola, my orderly, standing behind 
me, of ^^Oh ! Oh ! a nyungwa, " that I realised what 
had happened. I had shot a nyungwa, or tuskless 
bull, and, moreover, this was the second and last on my 
license so there was no more elephant shooting for me 
for a year in that protectorate. 

While elephant hunting in the Lado in 1908, I 
climbed the high Madi escarpment and came out on to 
the plateau above. The cool mountain air would have 
been only too delightful, after the mosquito-infested 
Nile bank, if it were not that halfway up the ascent, a 
bad attack of fever came on. I struggled to the top 
and then lay down under a tree till my tent was 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 119 

pitched. After several days of ague, high fever, and 
semi-deliriousness, I was so weak that I could not stand 
without support. 

The country had then a very bad reputation. After 
the Belgians had given up Dufile, several porters sent 
through to Loka by this way had been murdered, and so 
the country since then had been given a wide berth. 
The inhabitants of the villages left no doubt about their 
hostile intentions, as they turned out with muskets 
and spears and threatened to shoot my porters if they 
came near them. We were badly in need of food for 
the men, and I did not know what to do, as I was 
unable to move. We had no weapons except my own 
two rifles. 

My Swahili cook Husseni, a stout fellow, took my 
rifle and went to the nearest village and after a palaver 
managed to induce the chief and one or two men to come 
back to camp and brought them into my tent. I rated 
them soundly for their inhospitality to strangers and 
taking advantage of me being sick in this way. I told 
them that they would not dare to have behaved like 
this if I was well, and that I was friendly with both 
the Congo and the Uganda governments, so if anything 
happened to us they would be sure to hear of it from one 
or the other. Husseni then displayed our wares and 
told them that these would be theirs if food was 
produced. 

This had the effect of making them produce a limited 



I20 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

supply of flour. A day or two afterwards, I was able to 
sit at the door of my tent and enjoy the cool air and 
beautiful scenery of the mountains. The country, just 
at that spot, is the prettiest I have seen anywhere in 
the Lado, and I always cherished a pleasant recollec- 
tion of it, in spite of the rather adverse circumstances 
under which I had seen it. After two days' convales- 
cence, want of food compelled us to move. As the 
country ahead was reported full of people, and devoid 
of elephant, I returned by the way we had come. 

Two years later, I arrived in the same spot, up the 
same pass, to take over this country for the Sudan gov- 
ernment. The same chief came to me, and professed 
his affections for the old and everlasting adhesion to 
the new government. It was evident that he did not 
recognise me, as I had had a large beard the last time I 
was there. , 

I told him that I had heard that they were very bad 
people and hostile to strangers, and that several people 
had been murdered in their country. He protested 
volubly saying that his people were the most innocent 
and friendly in the world, they loved strangers, and 
welcomed everybody to their country. It must have 
been some other people I had been told about. It 
was quite true that some of the Madi were bad people 
but his were exemplary. 

I then said, ^' You were not so very hospitable to me 
when I came here two years ago, and I was sick." We 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 121 

had a good laugh over it, and since then he has been 
most docile, and given no trouble to us. 

During my first visit to the Lado Enclave in 1908, I 
was trekking down the Nile between Wadelai and Dufile 
and came to a group of Madi villages, called Alive jo. 
On my arrival, I noticed that the people were sulky and 
hostile. No one rose at my approach and no chief 
came to greet me. The natives I addressed would not 
reply, but just sat and glared at us. I was sitting under 
a tree waiting for the tail end of my caravan to come in, 
when some one said, ^' There are two white men.'' I 
looked up, and saw in the far distance two figures evi- 
dently wearing helmets, and one of them with a white 
umbrella, whilst behind them were several naked 
savages. 

I did not take much interest, thinking that they were 
two elephant poachers from the other bank. Suddenly 
my cook said, ''Why it is our white man," meaning my 
travelling companion. Captain Hart, whom we had not 
seen since we entered the enclave, as we had separated 
to hunt and failed to meet again. I picked up my 
glasses and recognised Hart as the second figure, and 
wondered who his companion with the white umbrella 
could be. On further investigation, he proved to be a 
native whom Hart had rewarded with helmet, shirt, 
and umbrella for services rendered. 

We had lunch together under the tree, and had much 
to recount to each other of our adventures up to date. 



122 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Hart was camped at the other side of the swamp. He 
had been up to the Lugware country and had more 
ivory than his Umited porters could carry, whilst 
for the same reason I was hopelessly tied to the river 
and my canoe. 

We decided that we must make a depot and leave our 
ivory in it, and this village seemed a suitable locality, 
excepting for the very hostile attitude of the natives. 
Hart returned in the afternoon, and promised to be 
back again with his camp next morning, taking some of 
my porters to carry his extra loads. 

I then set to work to try and ingratiate myself with 
the natives. I first sent for the chief and he came very 
reluctantly, a tall, sulky man. I talked to him for a 
while and then he asked in a very surly way why I did 
not give him presents. I replied that he knew per- 
fectly well that it was the custom for him to bring a 
present first to give the stranger, and until he did this, 
I considered that he was evilly disposed towards us. 

He went off and returned later with a very meagre 
gourd of flour and said that they had no food here but 
had to buy it from the opposite bank. I then asked 
him if he had any objection to my building a hut on 
some rising ground behind his village. He replied 
that he supposed the white men could do as they 
liked. I said that if he was going to be unfriendly, I 
should certainly do as I liked. I had only asked in 
consideration for him and his people, as I did not 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 123 

wish to put my hut on a spot which he might subse- 
quently want to till and to cultivate. 

I then showed him the site I wanted and asked him 
if he intended cultivating there or contemplated using 
it for any other purpose during the next few months. 
He grudgingly admitted that he did not, so I produced 
calico and presents and told him that this was in pay- 
ment for the right of building so near his village. 

During our conversation, a great waihng and lamen- 
tation arose at a large village near the water's edge. I 
inquired the cause and was told that they had been out 
in canoes hunting hippo, the meat of which they sold 
for flour on the opposite bank, and that to-day a hippo 
had upset the canoe of the chief of that village and 
killed him. 

Early next morning I moved my camp to the higher 
ground behind the village. The wailing was still 
continuing, so I asked if they had not buried the chief 
yet, to which they replied that he was not yet dead. 
I asked if I could see him, rather a risky experiment, 
for if the man was moribund and died directly after 
my ministrations, the people would hardly have become 
less hostile to us. 

I was taken down to the village and found the chief, 
supported by a number of women, in the centre of a 
stockaded enclosure, whilst round him was a great 
crowd, wailing and lamenting for him. His arm was 
tied up with a rough splint made of reeds, but nothing 



124 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

soft in the way of dressing or padding had been used, 
as these people had no cloth or clothes of any kind and 
could devise nothing else. I undid the splint and 
found that his arm was lacerated by enormous gashes 
from the hippo's teeth, the bone was broken, and the 
lower arm was only attached to the shoulder by two 
pieces of flesh. It was a ghastly wound and I had 
little hopes of his recovery. 

The native is extraordinary, however, in his recupera- 
tive powers and, if given a chance, heals most rapidly. 
The reason most of their injuries develop into large, 
festering sores is that they get filled with dirt and are 
treated by being plastered with mud. The swarms of 
flies that settle on the wounds also tend to make them 
unhealthy. I squirted out the wounds with strong 
antiseptic and dressed and set the arm as well as I 
could. During the rest of my stay in the village, I 
dressed him twice a day and gave him sleeping draughts 
at night. When I left, to my relief, he was not yet 
dead; on the contrary, he appeared much better. 

After attending to the chief, I was asked to look at 
another wounded man. I found a sulky looking 
person, sitting on the opposite side of the zariba nurs- 
ing a great gash in his thigh. I dressed this likewise, 
asking how it happened, and was told that he had done 
it himself with an arrow, owing to his bitterness about 
the accident that had happened to his brother. He 
was suffering, however, I believe, more from jealousy 



CONTRASTS AND CHANGES 125 

than bitterness when I saw him, as his brother was 
surrounded by a sympathising crowd, whilst he was left 
to sulk alone. 

Presently Hart turned up, and we set to work build- 
ing a hut surrounded by a strong stockade. From this 
time onwards, the people seemed much more friendly, 
and even the sulky chief paid us visits frequently. 

When the stockade and hut were finished, we buried 
the ivory and left our spare trade goods in the hut. 
We had a very goodly stock of these; in fact, small 
things like salt went such a long way that our 
expenditure was very much less than we anticipated. 
However, in food stores we had skimped ourselves, 
and now we had practically nothing left. 

Hart good naturedly undertook the dull and unin- 
teresting task of trekking down to Nimule and laying 
in a fresh stock, whilst I went up into the Lugware 
country, where he was to meet me later. We left a 
Swahili, whom we had picked up at Koba, in charge of 
the depot, giving him a rifle and several of the porters 
to keep him company. 

Having made all our arrangements, we trekked off. 
It was a little over two months before I again visited 
our base camp. I arrived by canoe, and as I drew near, 
I saw a little crowd of natives at the landing stage, one 
of them waving his arm at us in a peculiar way. I did 
not know whether it was intended to be menacing or 
friendly. As we approached, he became more violent, 



126 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

performing all kinds of evolutions with his arm, but 
in what appeared to be a very stiff and awkward way. 

It was only as we drew in to the bank that I recog- 
nised who it was; it was the moribund chief with his 
arm completely healed up. Although it was stiff and 
bent, owing to my very primitive setting, he could 
move it about and swing it round his head and wave 
it in the air, and it was his facility in this respect that 
he was demonstrating with great pride. 

He appeared really pleased to see me, and said frankly 
that he would not now be alive if it had not been for 
me. He told us that all was well with our belongings, 
and an immense crowd escorted me up to the zariba, 
from which the Swahili presently came to greet me. 
Very different was it to my first arrival in this village. 

I hoped that a sense of obligation at his recovery 
would show some tangible form in the way of a pres- 
entation of a sheep or even a chicken, but the depth 
of his gratitude never extended so far. However, 
just at this camp we were not so hard pressed for want 
of meat as elsewhere, as it was one of the few places 
we struck in which game was in any way plentiful. 
There was a large herd of kob which seemed never to 
leave the neighbourhood, and one could generally secure 
a waterbuck in the early morning. It was largely this 
that had influenced us in choosing it as a depot, as 
the meat of waterbuck could be exchanged on the 
opposite bank for flour for the porters. 



CHAPTER IX 

ABOUT LION 

The first time that I had anything to do with a lion 
in its wild state was in Somaliland in 1899, when I came 
on the spoor of a male and female. There is something 
very thrilling in this first contact with an animal 
one has been taught to hold in awe and respect from 
childhood. 

The Somalis say that a lion makes you jump three 
times. The first is when you suddenly hear him roar, 
whether at night or in the daytime; but more particu- 
larly in the dark he gives you a start. The second is 
when walking along you meet his spoor. You may be 
looking for it, but it always comes as a slight shock 
when you find it. The third and last is the time when 
you first sight him. They say that even a bold man is 
thus frightened three times by a lion, but after the sud- 
den shock of seeing him is over, he is no longer afraid. 

The first time I ever set eyes on a lion, I did not ex- 
perience this sensation, because I did not know what it 
was. He suddenly got up in thick grass and went off 
grunting. I had a momentary glimpse of something red, 
and thought that it was a bush pig. I fairly kicked 
myself when I realised too late what I had missed. 

127 



128 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

In Nyasaland there are periodical epidemics of man- 
eating during the rainy season. The grass is long 
then, and the lion, finding it difficult to approach game 
unheard, make raids on the villages when impelled by 
hunger. They are often very bold in their attacks on 
villages, and yet very wary in the way they avoid 
being killed by the European sportsman. The country 
is so thick that it is almost impossible to find them in 
the daytime, whilst, however hard one tries to forestall 
them at night, they generally manage to evade one by 
visiting some other village to that in which one has 
stationed oneself. 

The most certain way to get them would be to obtain 
immediate news of any cattle or natives killed, and to 
track them up whilst still on the body. In this, how- 
ever, the possible victims themselves are the greatest 
obstacles to success. So superstitious are the natives 
about the lion, that seldom is it possible to get khabar 
until too late. The news is almost invariably held over 
for a day or two, on some excuse or other, so as to give 
the lion a chance. No native wants you to hunt a lion 
on the information he gives. In the back of his mind 
he has a fear that the lion would get to know who had 
given him away, and revenge himself in some manner. 
In East Africa it is quite different; the natives are ready 
and willing to bring in news and lion are, moreover, 
much easier to find. 

The lion generally chooses an absolutely black night 



ABOUT LION 129 



for a raid on a village. As I have said, it is almost 
always during the rains that he takes to man eating, 
when the sky is generally cloudy, and the nights dark. 
I have several times been in a \'illage when a lion has 
passed quite close, no doubt reconnoitring, and on 
one occasion when a hut was broken open, but it was 
invariably too dark to see or get a shot. The latter 
incident I have described in "The Game of East 
Africa." 

In 1904 I was in Fort Manning in Nyasaland. We 
twice heard a lion roaring near, and he passed fairly 
close to the station. There was great excitement and 
we turned out with rifles, but could not see him as it 
was dark. I thought afterwards that these were rec- 
onnoitring \dsits to learn the lay of the land. Some 
ten days after the last of these visits, I was having my 
bath, when suddenly I heard a great commotion in the 
fort, the sound of many voices, and the blowing of 
bugles. My house was about a couple of hundred yards 
away, so hastily donning some clothes and snatching up 
a rifle, I ran down to the fort with Mr. D. D. LyeU who 
was stopping with me. All sorts of ideas flitted 
through my head as I ran. An attack, a mutiny, a 
fire, what could it be ? 

When we arrived, there was such an excited babble of 
talk, that one could not discover for some time what it 
was. I dragged a sergeant aside and asked him what 
had happened, and he said there was a lion, pointing 



I30 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

to the gate of the fort. I had come in by a small gate 
at the back and I now noticed that the main gate had 
been shut. I had never seen it shut before. I asked 
where the lion was and several people pointed at the 
gate, so I said, '' Open it, then, and let us have a look at 
him." The gate was opened and of course there was 
no lion. Lyell and I ran out, but we saw nothing, so 
then I started to find the originator of the story. 

Presently, the hospital assistant appeared and said 
that he was responsible for the story. He would not 
like to say whether it was a lion or not, but some great 
beast had sprung at him twice, as he had been walking 
down to the stream. He had shouted and run for the 
fort, the guard had then called out and blown the 
bugle, and that was all he knew. 

He took us to the spot and there, true enough, was the 
spoor of the lion and the marks of his spring, as he had 
torn up the turf, evidently having his claws out ready 
for action. I believe the fact that the hospital assist- 
ant was wearing boots saved his life, as when he turned 
to run it must have been the unwonted sound which 
made the lion, accustomed to bare feet, stop to consider, 
else why should he have paused ? The man was one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred yards from the fort, 
and easy to catch in a bound or two. He must have 
paused a second at the sound of the boots, and the 
next moment he heard the guard shouting, and then 
finally went off. 



ABOUT LION 131 

We followed the spoor with a lamp as far as we could 
that night, a pure waste of time, but we were very keen 
in those days. Next day we spent in tracking him, 
and learnt that he had followed in the tracks of the 
cattle and was making his way over to the zariba, when 
he met the hospital assistant. 

We had the cattle driven out the same way that day 
and on their return tied up one and sat over him, but 
without result. The Hon came back all right, but this 
time he inspected our garden, and walked over the 
vegetable beds. We sat up then in the garden, but 
he was too cunning for us, for he visited another part 
of the station. Altogether he came three nights run- 
ning, but we never got a glimpse of him, nor were 
we able to follow him up to his lying-up place by 
day. 

The same year I was hunting in North Eastern 
Rhodesia. Whilst camped one dark night on a steep 
bank above the Loangwa River, I woke up with a start 
to hear Hon roaring close by. I hurriedly groped about 
in the dark for the matches, but before I could find them, 
I heard a scratching noise at the flies of the tent. I 
seized my rifle, which was beside me, and pointing at the 
sound called out, ''Who is that ? " There was no reply, 
but the scratching sound continued. I called out again, 
but there was still no answer, so I decided to shoot. 
At the last moment, I thought perhaps it was only a 
hysena, and how fooHsh I would look shootmg at one 



132 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

when there were Hon about. Anyhow, I decided to 
wait a Httle longer. 

The creature, whatever it was, began crawHng 
under the flies, and this time I really was going 
to shoot, when I heard the voice of one of my boys 
call out, '^Mkango bwana, Mkango'' (a lion, master, 
a lion). 

What induced the boy to come under the flies instead 
of in at the door, and why he did not answer, I cannot 
make out, unless it was fear of attracting the attention 
of a lion possibly behind him. Anyhow, it is easy to 
imagine how thankful I was that I had paused before 
firing. 

I went out of the tent and we waited in silence for 
some time, and then we heard them go down to drink 
from the river close below the camp. After drinking 
they stood there. It was a party of three, and they 
uttered roar after roar, which sounded really magnifi- 
cent, echoing backwards and forwards between the 
steep banks of the river. However, they were rather 
too close to be pleasant, and we were very thankful 
when we heard them climbing the bank and going oft' 
to a safer distance. They hunted for some time in the 
vicinity, and then we heard their roars die away in the 
distance. 

A few days later, I heard a lion roaring continuously 
at 8 A.M. I have noticed several times the bush lion 
roaring at this time and even at 9 o'clock, but do not 




Gamra Oasis. Borana Country 

The stockade in the centre of the pool was erected by Abyssinian hunters for pro- 
tection whilst awaiting Hon, buffalo, and other game coming to drink at night. 




The White Rhino 
Showing the square lip which distinguishes this species from the black. 



ABOUT LION 133 



ever remember hearing the plain Hon so late, although I 
have often heard him well after sunrise. 

At a village near Fort Mangoche, also in Nyasaland, 
a man was sitting one night at the door of his hut drum- 
ming, whilst his wife was cooking food inside. The 
hut was an isolated one, being several hundred yards 
from the rest of the village. 

Suddenly the woman heard the man call out, "a lion 
has got me." She took a burning fagot from the fire, 
ran out, and smacked the lion in the face. The aston- 
ished animal let go, and she dragged her husband into 
the hut and hastily put up the poles which form the 
door. The man died a few minutes after, and the 
woman sat there with the dead body. 

Presently the lion returned and scratched gently on 
the door. This he repeated several times till it got on 
the woman's nerves. At last she could stand it no 
longer, so she took another fagot from the fire, unbarred 
the door, and fled to the village, leaving the dead man. 
The lion then walked into the hut and took him. 

These native doorways consist of a couple of stout 
stakes sunk into the earth on either side, and between 
these a number of poles are slid to close the door. It 
forms a strong barricade, stronger than the Hon can 
break through. He generally gets into a hut by break- 
ing a hole through the wall or jumping on the roof and 
burrowing down through the thatching. Whilst I 
was at Fort Manning, a well-known man-eater came and 



134 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

scratched at one of these doorways. The owner of the 
hut seized his spear and, thrusting it between the poles, 
was lucky enough to stab the lion to the heart. 

Simba station on the Uganda railway used to be a fa- 
mous place for lion. I was looking for some near there, 
when I saw a herd of zebra run forward towards a reedy 
watercourse, snort, and run back again. Their con- 
duct was so peculiar that I watched them for some time. 
They were all staring at something in the bed of the 
stream, and snorting at it. A few would run forward 
and then rejoin the herd, whilst at other times the whole 
herd would move forward and then back again. So en- 
grossed were they with this game of Bo Peep, that they 
did not notice me till I got close up to them; then they 
turned and bolted. At the same time, two lion got up 
out of the stream bed and fled in the opposite 
direction. 

It was at Simba that I was mauled by a Hon. In the 
dry weather they used to come and drink from a small 
pool, formed under the water- tank by the drippings 
and overflow. This was a tank raised on a high iron 
frame for supplying the engines with water. I sta- 
tioned myself here one night, sitting astride a girder. 
After a while, a lioness came strolling down the line 
and commenced drinking at the pool about six or seven 
feet below me. It was difficult to shoot, as she was di- 
rectly underneath me. Whilst I was trying to move into 
a firing position, she must have heard me, as she gave 



ABOUT LION 135 



one bound of about four yards to one side, and then 
stood listening. I then fired and she raced about two 
hundred yards up the line, and fell dead across the 
track. 

I was just thinking of descending when I heard a 
rustle in the grass and presently two lion came out on to 
the track, just opposite the dead body. They began 
scratching at and pawing it, then they lay down beside 
it and whined, and then got up and scratched again. 
It is difficult to say how long this lasted ; perhaps it was 
half an hour. Then they stood up and began to roar 
alternately. This they continued for about half an 
hour, and then they began slowly to approach the water- 
tank. 

The leading one came on, swinging his head from side 
to side, his head covering his chest. When he got close, 
I fired at him. I found out afterwards that the shot 
just caught the corner of his jaw, breaking part of the 
bone of the lower one, and then glanced off into the 
shoulder. He collapsed into the water trough just 
below the tank. The second one stopped on hearing 
the shot, and then advanced again, not a bit discon- 
certed, to see what was the matter. I gave him a shot 
and he waltzed round and then rushed into the grass, 
where he was found dead next morning, about a hun- 
dred yards from the line. By this time, the one in the 
water trough had picked himself out, and I had just 
time to give him another shot as he left the track, after 



136 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

which I heard him collapse in the grass close to the 
line. 

As the moon had now gone in, it was difficult to see. 
I went up to the station and got my orderly to bring a 
lamp. I passed the spot at which the last lion had fallen, 
being able to see nothing in the grass, and went to the 
lioness. I then returned and could just make out some- 
thing lying in the grass. The pointsman, a boy, and 
a few other station hands had gathered in a little group 
on the line by the water-tank, whilst the spot at which 
the lion was lying was perhaps fifty yards on. 

In the dark, the body, which was just discernible, ap- 
peared a long way below the line. I imagined that I was 
standing on an embankment. As a matter of fact, I 
afterwards discovered that the track was only a foot 
above the ground level. I thought I would just have 
a look over the edge and if the lion sprung I should be 
able to stop him, especially as he had to spring upwards. 

I approached the edge and immediately the inert mass 
assumed life, and with a roar sprang on me with one 
bound. The orderly, who was a few yards behind me, 
not the gallant Matola I have spoken of before, im- 
mediately retired precipitately. As the lion sprang, 
I fired into his chest and he landed on me, his right paw 
over my left shoulder, and he seized my left arm in his 
teeth. As my left arm was advanced in the firing 
position, it was the first thing he met. 

The weight of his spring knocked me down, and I 



ABOUT LION 137 



next found myself lying on my back my left arm being 
worried, and my rifle still in my left hand underneath 
his body. I scrambled round with my left arm still 
in his mouth until I was kneeling alongside of him, and 
started pummelling him with my right fist on the back 
of the neck. He gave me a final shake and then quickly 
turned round, and disappeared in the grass a little 
nearer to the station than I was. 

I reloaded and covered him but could not see him 
clearly enough to fire. I then passed the spot at which 
he was lying, keeping my rifle pointed towards him. 
I could not see him in the grass, and thinking him well 
left alone continued towards the station, meeting the 
admiring audience who had witnessed the scene just 
past the water-tank. 

Afterwards, when I found that I had not the use of 
my wrist, owing to a nerve being practically severed, 
it gave me great hope to remember that I had been 
able to reload and come into the firing position again 
without difficulty. 

I found that I was drenched with blood and my coat 
and breeches torn with teeth and claws. I retired to 
the waiting-room, where I got the station master to 
syringe out my wounds with strong potassium perman- 
ganate. There were eight big holes in my arm, and I 
afterwards discovered three claw marks on my back, 
presumably made when his paw passed over my 
shoulder. 



138 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I sat up in the waiting-room for about six hours, when 
the Nairobi train came in, the guard having been wired 
to bring some dressings from Makindu. Having band- 
aged up my arm, he escorted me to the train. This 
was about five in the morning and all the passengers were 
asleep in their berths. I reached a carriage all right, 
but just as I got to the steps my legs gave way, as I 
was very weak from loss of blood. The guard had to 
help me in, and I must have looked a very disreputable 
object. The lamps were shaded and the carriage nearly 
in darkness. The two passengers in the carriage, being 
suddenly awakened from slumber and seeing this disrepu- 
table object staggering in, helped by the guard, evidently 
thought that it was some one in the last stage of drunken- 
ness and, calling out that there was no room, tried to 
push me out. When it was explained to them what had 
happened, they were of course as kind as they could be. 

The shaky journey up to Nairobi, after my wounds 
had stiffened, was very painful. The pain in this case 
was probably due more to the severed nerve than any- 
thing else, because a big wound is, as a rule, less pain- 
ful than a small cut. 

At Nairobi, I was taken to the hospital where I 
was very kindly treated. After a few days my arm 
swelled to enormous proportions and assumed every 
colour of the rainbow, but owing to the assiduous 
attention of the nurses it was just saved. It was seven 
months, however, before I could use my wrist, and 



ABOUT LION 139 



about two years before I could feel really steady with 
it when shooting, although I shot my next lion after 
this event some nine months later. I was anxious to 
see how I should feel facing a lion again, as I was afraid 
that I might have lost my nerve; but I seem to be 
all right, and have bagged seven since. 

To finish with the lion that mauled me. I gave very 
definite instructions to my orderly before leaving, 
that no one was to go near the spot next day until 
he had been to the top of the tank. From this place 
he could get a good view without danger, and was to 
fire at the lion to see if it was dead. I repeated these 
instructions three times, as he was rather a dense 
person. 

In the morning a procession went out. Being 
natives they did just the opposite to what Europeans 
would do; the smallest of the party, my boy, led, while 
the soldier with the rifle came last. The boy tripped 
up to the lion, who was still alive and lying in the same 
place, and got clawed. Apparently, the orderly, who 
belonged to the same tribe, did nothing to help him, 
but the boy eventually managed to crawl away. The 
next train was then stopped alongside the line and the 
hard-dying lion was despatched from the guard's van. 

I have generally found a lion fairly easily killed, 
when compared to hartebeest and other game, but 
any animal once wounded, otherwise than in a vital 
spot, is much more diflicult to finish than an un wounded 



I40 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

one. No doubt if I had had a big bore, I should have 
stopped him, but I was shooting with a mannhcher. 

I think I have never seen anything funnier than two 
belated lions I met near the Ndurugu, British East 
Africa, returning home with their stomachs dragging 
on the ground. A herd of kongoni was following them 
and running after them to look at them. I never saw 
anything look so sheepish and ashamed as those two 
lion. Both were much too full to be comfortable, and 
were subject to the stare of a whole inquisitive herd 
in broad daylight. They looked intensely deprecating 
and self-conscious, as if they wished to say, ''It wasn't 
us at all that killed one of you last night; we are just 
taking a walk and wouldn't do any harm to any one. 
I wish you wouldn't stare so, it makes us feel uncom- 
fortable." 

In 1907 I was sketching south of Embu. I was re- 
turning to camp one day when some native guides 
from the Embei, whom I had sent back to camp, met 
me and said that they had seen a lion sitting under a 
tree. We went to the spot, a nullah with a steep slope 
on the near side; and they pointed out the top of a 
tree, which could just be seen above the side, as the 
spot under which they had seen the lion. 

My Dorobo hunter and I crept to the edge of the 
nullah and "saw two lioness lying near the base of a 
tree, at the bottom of the nullah on the opposite side. 
There was a thick tree growing close to the foot of 



ABOUT LION 141 



our slope, and we climbed down the side sheltered by 
this. Then we crept along the bottom of the nullah, 
sheltered by the palms growing beside the watercourse, 
till we reached a point opposite the tree and about fifty 
yards from it. There was nothing to be seen, and I 
was just crawling along a little farther, on hands and 
knees, when a lioness suddenly came out from behind 
a clump of palms and lay down facing me. 

I did not dare move because there were only a few 
little clumps of grass, which did not cover me, and the 
least movement would betray me. I waited perfectly 
still, on all fours, for some time, when she suddenly got 
up and disappeared behind the palms. I then very slowly 
and carefully sat down and got into firing position. I 
waited an interminable time and at last thought that 
she must have gone off under cover of the palms and 
reeds. 

I did not like to move, in case she could see through 
the palms, which were close to where she had dis- 
appeared, and so nearer to her eye than mine. Finally 
she came out again suddenly and lay down in the 
same place as before. 

I took careful aim and pulled the trigger and saw her 
roll over. There was a short pause, and then two more 
lion, both maneless, but one probably a male, trotted 
out and looked at the lioness. I had a shot at the near- 
est, and then, to my embarrassment, four more rushed 
out; the one I had hit dashed past, crossed the water- 



142 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

course to our side, and then went off. I fired again at 
another, and she rushed for a pool on my left, and fell 
headlong into it. By this time the others had split up 
and gone off in different directions, with a chorus of 
grunting and growling. I retrieved the two, but the 
one which had my second shot got away and I could 
not find him. 

After this I went back and told the Embei guides, 
who were very nice but not very brave people, to go 
back to camp and fetch porters for the skins. One of 
them said that he could not possibly go alone with all 
these lions about. It was explained that all the lions 
had gone off in the opposite direction, and after a little 
while he was prevailed on to go. Almost immediately 
he came tearing back and said that he had met four 
lions in the way who would not let him pass. I 
hurried to the spot and found not a vestige of spoor, 
so was forced to the conclusion that the Embei was' 
drawing on his imagination. This, seven in all, was 
the largest number of full grown lion I have met 
together. 

When I returned to Embu, I heard that two lions had 
been seen in broad daylight within a hundred yards 
of the soldiers' lines, and Captain Gordon, who was 
stationed there, had seen one at 6 p.m. We sat up 
for him without success. 

Two days later, Gordon saw one of them cross 
the road towards the lines at the same spot as before, 



ABOUT LION 143 



but this time it was at dusk and he missed him in the 
uncertain light. The day after, he was alleged to have 
again been seen at the same spot, but he was never 
bagged and we never could make out what it was that 
attracted him to this spot so often. He had certainly 
been round that night, as the next day at dawn I found 
some tracks of blood, as if he had clawed a bush pig 
and it had escaped him. 

After this, I was looking for lions north of Nyeri 
and had seen two, but had not obtained any, when 
I camped beside a small swamp. I was listening 
from my tent one night to the porters talking round 
their fire and heard one of them spin a yarn about a 
former visit to this very spot. He said that he was 
with a white man who went out and met nine lions 
just here; he shot two, and then one rushed at him 
and bit off his hand. 

Then the lions went off, and he returned to his 
tent. Presently he called the head man and gave 
him a letter which he was to present in Nairobi; it 
was for the pay of the porters. Soon afterwards they 
heard a report from his tent and went in and found 
that he had shot himself, as he was ashamed to live 
with only one hand. They took the body and carried 
it to Fort Hall, where it was put in a box and sent to 
England. This last touch, giving the story a happy 
ending, I think rather a fine effort. 

Next day I called the porter to ask him more about 



144 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the story, as it had interested me, but he pretended 
that he did not know to what I referred and said that 
he had never heard of any such story. 

I asked the district commissioner at Fort Hall and 
other people, who had been some time in the neigh- 
bourhood, if they had ever heard anything of the sort. 
They were all certain that no such event had happened 
since they had been there, nor in the history of Fort 
Hall, which was only ten years old then. I am forced 
to the conclusion that this rather pathetic little story 
is only a specimen of the wonderful powers of imagina- 
tion of the native. 

I was returning from a trip a little way down the 
Tana and came back by el Doinyo Sapuk and camped 
at Lion Rocks near the Athi. This is such a well- 
known place for lion and, moreover, so near civilisa- 
tion, that I never hoped to get one there. I arrived 
at about 4 p.m. and shot a kongoni for bait in case 
there should be any about. Next morning at dawn, I 
heard a lion roaring quite close to camp, so I scrambled 
into my clothes and rushed out. I was just in time 
to see a red-maned lion making off at the other side 
of the Athi, and heard the roaring again from farther 
down the river. 

I then went to the kongoni and found that it had 
been eaten, all but the fore quarters, and there was the 
spoor of three round it; one of a male went towards 
the river and must have been that of the one I saw, 



ABOUT LION 145 



while that of two lioness went down the river and it 
was them I must have heard roaring. 

I followed the stream and found the remains of a 
zebra which had been killed the night before and com- 
pletely devoured, all but skull and shin bones, before 
they came to the kongoni. Then I caught sight of 
a lioness in the distance, but could not get up to her 
and lost her spoor on the rocks. 

In the evening, I killed two impala, one eight hun- 
dred yards from camp, and one in a little gully with 
a perpendicular wall of rock each side. I imagined 
myself in the morning climbing up the back of the 
rocks and appearing at the edge to find the lion on the 
impala just below. It comforted me to think what a 
nice near and safe shot it would be, as they would be 
unable to scale the wall of rock and yet would only be 
about fifteen yards or so from me. 

On my return to camp just after sunset, I was passing 
a little boss of rock, with cactus on the top, about a 
hundred yards or more from me, when my eye sud- 
denly caught something on the top. I looked closely 
and saw perfectly motionless what I took to be a 
lion's head. I could not be certain, so took out my 
glasses and looked up. It had disappeared, so it was 
a lion's head. I sat down and sighted my rifle on the 
spot, in case it should reappear; but it was dusk and 
I could not see the sights well, so, after a little while, I 
returned to camp, which was a few hundred yards away. 



146 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

This rock was just above one of the impala I had 
shot. I had not been in camp more than half an hour 
when I heard the Hon roaring, as he came down from 
the rock to the impala, no doubt calling his companions. 
He must have been watching with some interest my 
shooting and leaving the impala there. 

Before it was quite light next morning, I visited the 
first impala and found it completely demolished. 
I then made my way to the second, that lying in the 
guUey. I came to the foot of one rocky side and heard 
a low growl from the top of the rock. It was just 
light enough to see now, so I climbed up. I reached 
the top and put my head over and saw the heads of 
several lioness. As I was getting into a position from 
which I could fire, my field-glasses swung against the 
rock, and made a slight sound. 

The lioness dodged down, and I crept up behind a 
little bush on the top. I saw a black-maned lion, who 
had left earlier, going out across the plain, and a lioness 
sitting up, who did not give me a shot. Then I heard 
a scrunching noise from behind the bush, and then a 
red-maned lion flew out and disappeared over the 
edge of the rocky wall. I had just time to give him 
a flying shot in the flank as he went. 

All the rest were now out of sight amongst the 
rocks. The only one I could see was the black-maned 
one trekking straight out across the plain several 
hundred yards away. I put a shot in front of him 



ABOUT LION 147 



which, when it struck the ground, made him turn and 
come back towards the rocks, a piece of luck I had 
hardly hoped for. 

Then getting down from the rock I rounded a corner 
and saw the wounded, red-maned lion sitting up, but 
he disappeared round some rocks before I could fire. 
The black-maned one was now coming back across 
my front. I took a running shot as he passed, and he 
answered to the shot and tore, grimting all the time, 
towards a thick clump of bush into which he dis- 
appeared. 

There were now two wounded lion to retrieve. I 
reconnoitred the bush carefully and heard one growl- 
ing from the inside. I could see nothing and walked 
round and round. At last I got my cook to fire a 
shot at random into the bush, whilst I stood ready to 
receive him if he came out. 

Nothing happened, but suddenly a honess appeared 
from one side and tore across to some caves near. I 
fired as she ran; she answered to the shot and dis- 
appeared into the caves. That now made three to 
recover. 

Leaving two men to watch the bush from a distance, 
I went, for a change of air, to look for the red-maned 
one. We found the spoor and followed it till it got 
lost on some rocks, and then went to look at the place 
at which the lioness had disappeared. It was a long, 
winding cave which did not look inviting, with a 



148 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

wounded lioness inside somewhere and all sorts of winds 
and turns. It seemed as if one was going to lose 
them all. 

I then returned to the bush and approached it 
carefully. It was only a small and clumpy bush, 
about five yards across, and every moment I expected 
an infuriated lion to rush out. At last I got right up 
to it and peered through it. It seemed only possible 
that I should see either a live or a dead lion, as we had 
seen him go in there, and he could not have come out 
without being observed. However, in hunting one 
always meets with the unexpected. I saw no lion, 
but the mouth of a cave completely blocked by the 
bush. I got under the bush but could see no distance 
into the cave as it was darkened by the undergrowth. 
The next thing to do was to cut it down so as to be 
able to look in. 

Whilst some porters undertook this job, I went 
again to search for the red-maned lion. We struck 
the spoor beyond the place at which we had lost it, 
and it took us into a thickly bushed watercourse. 
Presently, I heard something moving, and the lion 
broke out on the opposite side of the watercourse and 
started going up the hill. I fired as well as I could, 
but could not see well, as I was closely pressed in on all 
sides by bushes. I hit him, and he rushed back into 
the bushes and I heard him breaking his way through 
towards me roaring lustily at intervals. 



ABOUT LION 149 

I hastily retreated, as I could not see a foot where I 
was standing. There was a wall of rock just outside 
the bush patch, and I climbed to the top of this. The 
bushes were too thick to see through, so we started 
throwing stones at where we thought he was. At last we 
located him, and every time a stone hit him he growled, 
but he would not move and we never got a sight of 
him. At last a big stone hit him, and he moved down 
into the bed of the watercourse, where he was immune 
from the stone throwing. 

I then went in again after him with my gun bearer, 
Tengeneza. I reached the spot at which he had been 
lying and found a lot of blood, and then cautiously 
approached the watercourse. The bank was thickly 
lined by bushes. I parted these and looking through 
saw him just below me in the bed of the stream. He 
tried to spring out at me but only got half-way up the 
bank, and slipped back, and I finished him there in 
the hollow. We found afterwards that a leg had 
been broken, otherwise it would have been an easy 
matter to have sprung up the bank to where I stood, 
about four feet above him. 

We now returned to the cave and found that the 
bush had been cleared away from the entrance. We 
could see about four or five yards inside and after that 
all was darkness. We threw stones in but nothing 
happened. The cave was just high enough to stand 
in at the entrance but rapidly shelved so that to get 



I50 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

any distance one must crouch. There were loose 
boulders on the floor over which to crawl, and it looked 
so dark and uninviting, that I was only seeking for 
an excuse to get away. 

About six porters, my gun bearer, and cook, Husseni, 
were waiting to see what I would do. Suddenly, a 
brilliant idea struck me. I pulled out my watch and 
said, "Good gracious, it is already eleven o'clock; we 
have wasted the whole morning. We must trek on 
at once." So saying, I moved to go away. 

My cook, who is either a perfect fool or else an ex- 
traordinarily stout fellow, said to Tengeneza, "Come 
along. Let us go in that we may ease our minds once 
and for all whether this lion is alive or dead." 

Tengeneza demurred, but Husseni approached the 
cave. This was too much for me so I said, "Look 
here, Husseni, just you leave that lion alone. It is my 
lion and not yours." Then I told one of the porters 
to rush back to camp and tell the head man to pack 
up ready to start and then I went into the cave, 
secretly cursing Husseni for being a madman. 

There was only room for one, comfortably, so I led, 
followed by Husseni. After advancing a little way, 
one's eyes got accustomed to the dark and I said, "Do 
you see that in front? Do you think it is a boulder ?" 
Husseni peered round my shoulder, "I don't know, 
master." "Anyhow, I am going to have a shot at it," 
I said; which I did. Nothing happened, and the rever- 



ABOUT LION 151 



beration in the cave was too great to hear what my 
shot hit. There was darkness to each side, and the 
lion might be on either side or lying on a ledge. The 
thing in front I decided was a boulder. 

To make certain, I advanced again and put the 
muzzle of my rifle against it. It was soft and it was 
only then that I knew that it was indeed the Hon, 
and that he was dead, which was rather lucky as he 
had been growling from inside not so long before. 
I felt him and found that I was at the head end, so 
I told Husseni to crawl over the boulders to one side, 
and that he would find his tail somewhere and then 
we could pull him out. 

Husseni fumbled away in the dark for some time 
and then said, ''Bwana, I cannot find his tail." "Feel 
about for it," I said, "and if you cannot find it take 
hold of a leg." We slowly dragged him out over the 
stones, and when we got him to the mouth of the cave, 
we found out why Husseni had been unable to find 
his tail. He was a magnificent black-maned lion, 
but he had no tail. It had rotted off. I do not know 
if it had been caught in a trap or bitten off or what 
had happened to it, but there was only the smallest 
little stump left. 

That was two out of the three. I next went into the 
big cave to look for the lioness. It was a rambling 
kind of cave with all sorts of turns and passages. I 
only reconnoitred as far as I could see well. There 



152 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

was an opening in the roof which let in a certain amount 
of light, but when I passed this, there was nothing 
but darkness. I thought I would just let that lioness 
be and content myself with the two lions for that day, 
so returned to camp, and then trekked off to the Athi 
River station. 



CHAPTER X 

NATIVE SERVANTS 

As having a good or bad servant makes all the 
difference between being comfortable or uncomfortable, 
contented or discontented, he is a most important 
factor in African life and, indeed, in every other kind 
of life. One's boy is the spectacles through which 
one views African life. Sometimes he is a perfect treas- 
ure and then life seems well worth living; sometimes 
the very same boy is so hopeless that he is irritating 
beyond measure and one's whole horizon looks gloomy. 

The usual African is a very uncertain individual 
and varies from time to time considerably. In Nyasa- 
land one used to suffer from black days when nothing 
went right, whether the fault was entirely that of the 
natives, or whether one was partly to blame oneself, 
I do not know. 

These black days would perhaps begin by finding 
one's askari (soldiers) had forgotten everything they 
had ever learnt. Every conceivable mistake they 
could make, they would, and one would find that they 
had invented a number of new mistakes that no one 
had ever thought of making before. A man on whom 
days of personal instruction in musketry had been 

153 



154 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

spent would look at one blankly when requested to 
put his sight to fixed sights. 

In despair one would ask a sergeant to tackle him, 
and the sergeant would carefully tell him that the five 
hundred yard sight was the two hundred and vice versa. 
Then on looking at the rifles on the tripod, they would 
be found pointing in every direction but the target, and 
the leaves of the backsights at every angle excepting 
vertical. 

One would then go and see how another officer was 
getting on with his company and he would say, '^I 
don't know what is the matter with them this morning; 
they are all as idiotic as they can be." 

Having got the ordeal of parade over, one would 
retire to breakfast, thankful to leave them. Perhaps 
one would find no cloth laid, and on calling one's boy 
and asking where the breakfast was, he would look at 
one blankly till one said, "Food, quick." 

There would be a long delay and wrangling of voices 
outside, and then perhaps the cook would appear and 
say that he heard he was wanted. One would be get- 
ting rather cross by this time and so would say that if 
breakfast did not appear in five minutes all the boys 
would get beaten. He would look in astonished amaze- 
ment. He had never heard of such an outrageous de- 
mand as that any one should want breakfast in the 
morning. 

So it would go on all through the day. The inter-. 



NATIVE SERVANTS 155 

preter, by way of being a more or less educated native, 
would never put the questions one wanted, and would 
drive one to distraction by answering, *^Yes" to a 
question such as, ^'What is his name?" 

I dare say one's own irritability, after a certain time, 
helped towards misunderstanding, as one would get 
exasperated and perhaps not careful enough to give 
the lengthy explanations required to reach the native 
brain. Nevertheless, I have never met these absolutely 
black days in East Africa, Uganda, and other places. 
The natives there are happy-go-lucky, as most Africans 
are, and make the most extraordinary and uncalled-for 
mistakes. They do not, however, seem to suffer from 
that sudden and complete loss of all glimmerings of in- 
telligence that the Central African appears subject to. 

I have often pondered over this since and have come 
to the conclusion that the Central African, undoubtedly 
less intelligent than the northern Bantu, is more 
addicted to periods of blank unreceptiveness, when 
the mind is not working, and the individual is in a kind 
of state of coma. This state is induced by rest and 
having nothing to do, and so it was generally after a 
Sunday's rest, including feasting and drinking, or not 
having been sufficiently stirred up lately that these 
blank days occurred. A very noticeable thing with 
most Bantus is that work induces work, and leisure in- 
duces laziness of both mind and body. 

One's boys always appear to their best advantage 



156 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

under the most trying circumstances, so long as these 
circumstances are natural to them ; there is nothing 
that upsets a native so much as new conditions. After 
a long and wearying march and a long period without 
food, it is really good to see the activity and care mth 
which the camping arrangements are made, the celerity 
with which your dinner is prepared, and the thought- 
fulness with which your little wants are looked after. 
Then, perhaps, before having rested or fed, one boy 
well be digging a trench round your tent, another 
washing your clothes; all will be busy at something, 
and one feels selfish to be sitting doing nothing while 
all this is being done for one. 

Then take another day. Perhaps you start off hunt- 
ing before dawn and get back after dark, hungry and ut- 
terly worn out. Your boys have had the whole day to 
rest and have not been worried at all. On such an oc- 
casion, one is seldom as well attended to as if they had 
been hard at work all day. One finds that the simplest 
and most ordinary duties have been forgotten. There is 
no clean water ready for drinking, insufficient firewood, 
although it only required a word to the porters to fetch 
it. The dinner has been skimped or forgotten, and there 
is no bath water or hot water for tea ready. The lamp 
is not lit and, in fact, nothing has been done since you 
left in the morning. With the prospect of an idle day 
before them, the boys have let their minds get into that 
state of coma from which it is difficult to arouse them. 



NATIVE SERVANTS 157 

It is rather difficult for a European, to realise what 
such a state is, for his mind is always more or less ac- 
tive, whether consciously or unconsciously, even though 
he may appear to be doing nothing. I believe that the 
native is capable of assuming a state in which the mind 
is absolutely detached and not working, and when in 
such a state, he is only recalled by a start to his present 
surroundings. 

The life of the head man of a village in Nyasaland, 
when not engaged in the strenuous pursuit of his of- 
ficial duties, is something like this. At sunrise he 
crawls out of his hut and sits outside. After a short 
time his wife crawls out and offers him some food. 
He eats this and then makes his way to a tree, perhaps 
a hundred yards from the village. Under this he sits 
in deep abstraction, till about noon a child brings him 
some food and water. After partaking of this, he moves 
a little so as to get the afternoon shade. He then sits 
in deep meditation till sunset, when he crawls into his 
hut and goes to sleep. 

Sometimes he is joined by a few other old men under 
his tree. They hardly ever speak to each other, and 
if they say anything, it is to make some obvious remark 
as, ^^ There is a dog," ''Yes, it is a dog," ''Oh," "Ah," 
and a further period of silence. 

My cook, while at Fort Manning, married the daugh- 
ter of a local chief. Soon afterwards the father came 
to visit his daughter, not so much from fatherly affec- 



158 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

tion as with the idea of getting a present from the cook. 
I was on the verandah when he came. He sat down 
in the compound behind my house, and his daughter 
sat down about ten yards behind him with her back 
to him. I was doing some carpentering on the ve- 
randah and watched to see if they would say anything 
to each other, but they did not say a syllable. 

Presently, I called the father to ask him some ques- 
tion about his village and he returned and said, '^The 
white man says so and so." The daughter said, "Ah ! " 
and they resumed their position with their backs to 
each other. I then went into the house to write, and 
when I came out again they were sitting in exactly the 
same position. An hour later the daughter got up 
and went into her house, whilst the father, having got 
some calico from his son-in-law, went off home. 

The northern Bantus are much more lively and 
talkative than this, and really seem to take some in- 
terest in existence. I often think that unfamiliarity 
with a language and an inability to appreciate the limi- 
tations of a native's life make him appear much more 
stupid than he really is. If one comes to think of it, 
every one of the hundreds of objects with which a 
white man surrounds himself is foreign to the native 
and he has to learn their use. It must take some time 
for a raw boy to learn the purposes for which such ar- 
ticles are used, more especially as no native will ever 
ask another to tell him what he does not know, nor will 



NATIVE SERVANTS 159 



any other native take the trouble to show or teach the 
new boy anything. He has to learn everything by 
observation. 

Very strange are the mistakes made with the white 
man's belongings. Pictures are put upside down, a 
white canvas shoe is paired on the shelf with a brown 
leather boot, the table-cloth is arranged pattern down- 
wards, and every conceivable mistake is made. A 
favourite saying of one of the old inhabitants of Nyasa- 
land was, "that a native has only one way of doing a 
thing, and that is the wrong way," and it does seem as 
if he always manages to hit on the wrong way of doing 
a thing by an extraordinary fatality. 

Take a tin of jam which has to be opened with a tin 
opener. To the native who cannot read the writing 
on the label and who never notices which side up a 
picture should be, the top and the bottom must look 
exactly alike. It is really immaterial which end is 
opened, but I have often remarked on the unerring 
instinct with which a native chooses the bottom to 
open. 

I have often thought that when a thing was done 
wrong it impressed itself on one's mind, whereas the 
times it happened to be done right passed unobserved. 
With this thought in mind, I took statistics of a thing 
which could only be reasonably done in two ways. 
When my slippers were put out for me after my bath, 
as there was to the native eye no difference between the 



i6o HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

right and the left, there was a combination of two 
ways to arrange the sHppers. Either the left slipper 
might be on the left of the right one or it might be on 
its right. It was, moreover, easy to make a note of 
one's observations by making a scratch on the wall. 
The theory of chance would lead one to expect that in 
the long run the two positions ought to come out about 
equal. 

I forget the exact result of my statistics, but it was 
either eleven or thirteen times running that the slippers 
were put in the wrong position, viz., the left on the 
right of the right, and then I found them put right once. 

I was so overcome that I ceased taking statistics 
at once for fear of spoiling the result. Of course it 
might really only be like a long run on the red at roulette, 
and I might have met afterwards an equally long run 
on the black, but I never noticed it. 

I found that the Central African servant could seldom 
hold more than one idea in his head at the same time. 
For instance, if I told my boy after dinner to get me 
my pipe, tobacco, and matches, he would either bring 
none or only the last-named object, although one would 
naturally associate these articles together in one's 
mind. He did finally learn to bring them, or two of 
them together after a year's practice. I often amused 
myself by saying to him, " Get my pipe," and he would 
go and pick it up. Before he had given it to me, I 
would say, "and the tobacco." He would return and 



NATIVE SERVANTS i6i 

put the pipe down and take up the tobacco; then I 
would say, *^and the matches/' and he would hurriedly 
put down the tobacco and bring me the matches. 

I was giving a dinner party in Zomba once and tried 
to spread myself over the feast. I took great trouble 
to explain all the dishes to the boys and the order in 
which they were to come. One of them was a savoury, 
and I had carefully explained that it came last. We 
got through the soup all right then in came the 
savoury. It was just being put in front of the guests, 
when I noticed it and hurriedly ordered its exit. After 
a long delay, we got the next course and then came the 
savoury again. Again I waived it away and we got on 
with another course, when the persevering savoury 
reappeared. One of the guests said, "What is this 
which keeps on coming in ? I am going to have mine 
now, or else I may miss it," and so we set to and had 
the savoury and then went on with the rest of the 
dinner. 

The Somali is a good servant. Of course he comes in 
a different category altogether from the Central African. 
I had an excellent one at Aden, who looked after all 
my things in the most careful and conscientious way. 
One day he came in with another servant and a police- 
man and explained that he was just going to prison for 
a couple of months, and so he had brought another 
servant to act for him whilst he was away, and to hand 
over all my things to him. He handed over and 

M 



i62 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

counted out everything down to the smallest detail and 
made the other servant responsible for them. It 
appeared that he was a well-known thief, but, like 
many good servants, he only stole other people's things 
and not his master's. When he came out of prison 
he came back to me smiling, and was very hurt that I 
did not reengage him. 

I have always taken great pains to learn the lan- 
guage of every country I have been in, or that was 
likely to be useful to me, and so at one time I took up 
the study of Somali. It is a very difficult language, but 
I myself believe that at one time I was fairly proficient. 
I could understand what the natives said, but I had 
great difficulty in making them understand what I 
said. There are several very extraordinary guttural 
sounds in the language. The ordinary European finds 
it hard enough to master some Arabic letters, such as 
'am and the strong h. In Somali there appears to 
be a caricature of each of these letters. Whereas the 
Arabic 'am comes from the lower throat, often some- 
thing resembling the noise induced by a sudden blow 
on the mark, the Somali 'am can only be compared to 
some of the noises reminiscent of a channel steamer. 

No doubt, inability to pronounce these letters in the 
correct way made one somewhat difficult to understand, 
from the Somah point of view, but they did not occur 
by any means in all words, and one would have thought 
that one ought to be able to make oneself more or less 



NATIVE SERVANTS 163 



intelligible after a time. However, if there was a 
slight error in a single and immaterial word, the Somali 
refused to understand the whole sentence, or anything 
one might say afterwards; which used to be the more 
annoying as one could understand when he made such 
remarks as, "What is the foreigner saying ? " ''I don't 
understand Hindustani or EngHsh," and so on. 

When I went to Nyasaland after these experiences, 
I was filled with astonishment at the intelligence of 
the natives in understanding one. On my first arrival 
I picked up a vocabulary and looked up "to want," 
and found "Kufuna"; then "knife,'' and found 
"Mpeni." Immediately the boy went off and fetched 
a knife, whereas after a year's study of Somali, the 
chances would be that I could not ask a raw Somali 
for the simplest object, and make him really under- 
stand me. 

I have a sneaking admiration for the SomaH. He is 
really indef eatable ; he always comes out on top. He 
is the most extraordinary, arrogant, and conceited 
person in the world; he thinks he knows and can do 
everything, and it is impossible to convince him other- 
wise. He Hves in the most hopeless country imagin- 
able and there seems no possibility, at present, of ever 
being able to teach him that he is not a lord of crea- 
tion, or at any rate the only part of the creation which 
he thinks worth anything, — that miserable bit of 
desert called Somaliland. 



i64 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

He often makes, as I have said, a very good servant, 
but I do not think he ever has any attachment for his 
master, although he is quite clever enough to simulate 
such a feeling if he thinks that it will inspire con- 
fidence and lead to extra wages. I believe the Somali, 
in the bottom of his heart, always despises the white 
man and imagines himself to be vastly superior in 
every way. 

In the 1900 expedition, we left our baggage, servants, 
and a rear-guard in a zairba, whilst we made a long night 
march and attacked the Mullah's people next morning. 
In this engagement Captain Fredericks was killed. 

When we returned to the zariba, I was much touched 
by Captain Fredericks' servant rushing up to me, 
wringing his hands, and showing every sign of, what I 
at first imagined to be, intense grief. He was an ex- 
cellent servant and Fredericks had been a kind and 
indulgent master. The latter spoke Arabic, an accom- 
plishment the Somalis look up to, and I thought that 
his servant was devoted to him. 

"What shall I do? What shall I do?" he wailed. 
" My master is dead and I have not been paid my wages 
for the last two months! " 

I told him that white men were not low thieves like 
Somalis and that he would of course get paid every- 
thing that was due to him. Down country, where there 
was no use for money, the servants and soldiers natu- 
rally did not draw any pay, but it was put by until their 



NATIVE SERVANTS 165 

return to the coast. I doubt if anybody had any money 
to speak of. When, however, the servant had ap- 
preciated the fact that he would be paid in full when we 
reached the coast again, his grief subsided in the most 
wonderful way. 

In spite of the Somali's obviously superior intel- 
ligence and ability, I would much rather have for ser- 
vant the cheerful harum-scarum Bantu. He may smell 
and be forgetful, dirty, clumsy, and stupid, but he has 
certain doglike qualities which endear him to one. 

The Swahili also often make excellent servants. 
They have all the cheerfulness and hardiness of the 
black, combined with a greater intelligence derived from 
the Arab. I had a Swahili cook, who was a perfect 
paragon in the bush, and as the greater part of my time 
with him was spent in trekking, he did me very well. 
Under very trying conditions he was at one time every- 
thing, cook, boy, head man of porters, everything rolled 
in one. Always cheerful, willing, and obedient and 
moreover intelligent, he was invaluable. However, he 
had one fault, he was an inveterate drunkard. He 
never helped himself to my spirits, but directly we 
arrived in a station, he managed to get drunk. 

After several months exemplary conduct in the bush, 
we would roll up at a station. He would put up my 
tent, arrange the loads, and then disappear. No dinner 
would be forthcoming and nothing further would be 
heard or seen of him till twelve or one o'clock at night. 



1 66 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

when his return would be announced by a flow of the 
peculiarly disgusting oaths in which Swahili is so 
prolific. Usually polite and good-natured, at such 
times he would heap the most filthy abuse on porters, 
boys, or any native he could find. 

Every time this happened, and it was only about 
once in three or four months that we touched at a sta- 
tion, I used to swear that I would give him a sound 
thrashing. He was always very penitent though, and 
when I remembered his faithful services, I could never 
bring myself to carry out my threat. When short of 
porters, I have seen him carry a tusk or a load through 
a long day's march, a thing a servant will never do, 
because it lowers him to the status of a porter. On 
arrival in camp, he would get up the tent, arrange my 
things, cook the food, dole out the porters' rations, 
bring in firewood, go off and buy supplies, nurse me 
when I was sick, and once, when I could not walk, he 
himself took one end of the pole of the improvised 
hammock and carried me for miles. 

The native servant is always a potential thief. He 
may serve you honestly for years, except for minor 
pilfering, and then one day help himself to your be- 
longings. As a rule, however, he only pilfers and this 
he cannot help doing. To try to put a stop to it, so 
long as he keeps it in bounds, is to make both your 
life and his a burden. I heard that a boy, who served 
me honestly and admirably on a long trek, returned 



NATIVE SERVANTS 167 



to Mombasa after I left, with a good chit from me, en- 
gaged himself to another European and immediately 
absconded with two hundred rupees. 

While on a little expedition one of my boys helped 
himself to money out of my box. I am very careless, 
and no doubt it was largely my fault for not keeping it 
locked up. If he had taken only half or three-quarters 
of what I had, I should never have been able to swear 
to the theft, although I might have suspected it, but 
when I found my bag of rupees empty, I knew that at 
least some must have been taken. 

W^en I accused him of the theft, he immediately ad- 
mitted it, and volunteered to work for me, for no pay, 
till he had made good his debt. He had also taken a 
note which he had asked a sergeant to cash, and it was 
the fact of the sergeant asking me if I had just given 
my boy a note which made me look at my box. As 
there was no way of spending money there, I asked 
what had become of it, and found that he had lost it all 
gambling with some Somalis. 

He was duly but leniently punished, and then came 
back to me and asked to be reengaged. This I should 
have liked to have done, as the chances are that he 
would have been honest with me in future, and I liked 
the youth. I argued that a known and discovered 
thief is just as good as an unknown and undiscovered 
one. However, as it would have been a bad example 
for the other boys to see him taken on again, I dechned 



i68 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

his services. A native does not feel any shame at being 
convicted and considers himself just as good after being 
punished as a native who has not yet been found out. 
I suppose he feels that he is not worse than any- 
body else but only more unfortunate in having been 
detected. 

About the only servant I ever had whose honesty 
could be judged by European standards is a head man, 
Abdi Hassan, who trekked through Abyssinia with me 
and has also been with me in the Lado. However, he 
is a very exceptional man, his kindness to animals alone 
would distinguish him from any other native I have 
ever met. Only the other day, as we were trekking 
along, I heard him run up from behind to expostulate 
with a native, who was carrying two fowls head down- 
wards, a practice so common in Africa that one often 
fails to notice it. I might add that the fowls were 
neither mine nor his, but the native's own, so he had 
no personal interest in the matter whatever. For an 
African, he is most wonderfully informed about current 
events. I do not know where he picks up his informa- 
tion, but he talks quite fluently about the royal family 
and asks questions about the French in Morocco. 

The Northern African Bantu, as I have said, is much 
more intelligent than the Central African. They 
appear more observant and interested in one's belong- 
ings. They ask questions about anything of which 
they do not know the use. The Central African has 



NATIVE SERVANTS 169 

not an enquiring mind, and it is seldom that he asks 
about anything he does not know. 

The African is, on the whole, very thoughtful and 
seldom forgets anything he is told to do. That is to say, 
if you tell him to do anything next day or to remind you 
of something, he invariably does, although you yourself 
may have forgotten. On the other hand, he is quite 
likely to do something a hundred times in succession and 
forget absolutely about it the hundred and first time. 

Many of his mistakes are attributable to not under- 
standing and a fear of saying that he has not under- 
stood. If one does not make oneself clear, the boy 
invariably says "yes," and seldom asks you to explain 
more fully or says that he did not hear. This pretend- 
ing to understand is sometimes very comic, and some- 
times very annoying. 

I was going down the Nile once, and we saw a steamer 
coming up. I was wondering if it was the post boat, 
when I heard some of the Sudanese talking about it 
and saying that it was the Compania boat. Not 
knowing what this was, I turned to a Swahili beside me 
and asked him what kind of boat it was. He turned 
and asked the Sudanese, who said it was the Compania, 
to which he replied, ''Oh, of course, so it is." Then he 
turned to me and said, "Master, it is the Compania 
boat." "And what kind of boat is that?" I replied. 
"How do I know?" was the answer; "that is all they 
said it was." 



I70 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Two other incidents connected with African servants 
and I will stop. In different parts of Africa I must 
have heard or myself asked the question from a boy, 
^'What is this?" as a joint or stew is offered, some 
hundred times. The question generally originates 
from the fact that there are several kinds of meat in 
the larder, perhaps a leg of mutton and a bushbuck, 
whilst one's companion has shot a waterbuck or hart- 
beest. The invariable answer is, whether the boy is 
Uganda, SwahiU, Yao, or whatever the tribe, "Meat." 

Once I was travelling down-stream with my orderly 
Matola and another native in a very unstable canoe. 
Suddenly we rocked and the orderly who was standing 
up to pole was precipitated into the river, whilst the 
canoe half filled with water. The other native and I 
just managed to retain our places in the canoe, whilst 
the gallant Matola struck out lustily for the bank. 
Looking over his shoulder, he called out to me to see if 
my pocket-book was safe, as it was in the pocket of my 
coat, which I had taken off and hung over the end of 
the canoe. The purposes for which it was used must 
have been quite a mystery to him, but he knew that it 
was a thing I set great store by. It was the first thing 
he thought about on emerging from under water, 
whereas one would have thought the probability of 
crocodiles would have been sufficiently engrossing. 



CHAPTER XI 

ELEPHANT HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 

The Lugware had a very bad reputation as a hostile 
and warhke tribe. The Belgians told us that it was 
impossible to go to their country without a large escort 
of troops. 

Hart was the first to come in contact with them, at 
the southeast end of their country, and found it a good 
elephant country, as no one had been shooting there. 
He was unable to proceed as he did not have enough 
porters and so returned to the Nile where he met me. 

He had come across two funny old men at the villages 
he came to, who were distinguished from their fellows 
by wearing clothes. Even had it not been for this dis- 
tinction, I should have had no difficulty in recognising 
them, when I saw them, from Hart's description. One 
wore a hat closely resembling a Chinese pagoda, whilst 
from their eccentric behaviour, he called them the two 
knockabout artists. 

Under the auspices of these two gentlemen, I made my 
first essays in elephant shooting amongst the Lugware. 
They accompanied me from village to village and every- 
where the people were as hospitable as their abject 
poverty permitted. Owing to frequent raids from all 

171 



172 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the surrounding tribes, who were better armed with 
muskets, their country had Httle to offer. Large tracts 
of it were absolutely denuded of stock and even 
chickens, while they said it was little use planting as the 
surrounding tribes came and burnt their villages and 
grain stores. 

A purveyor of meat under these circumstances was a 
godsend to the people, and they came in from far and 
wide with news of elephant. After shooting a few days 
in the country of the knockabouts, I camped by a big 
river. The rains had already set in heavily and the 
streams were constantly impassable. Whilst camped 
here, I witnessed a lively scene. Many of the people 
from the other bank had flocked over for elephant 
meat. The stream was rushing down in full flood, and 
on each bank was a crowd of people watching their 
crossing. One after another they flopped in, holding 
spears or bows and arrows over their heads with one 
hand. Others had baskets of meat, and shouts of 
laughter greeted those who got into difficulties, or were 
swept down the stream. The women did not attempt 
to swim, but lay flat on the water whilst two men 
steered each one across. 

I wanted to take a photograph of this merry, aquatic 
party, but directly I got out my camera one of my 
porters, who thought he knew all about the require- 
ments of a picture, herded everybody out of the way. 
The only pictures he had seen me take were those of 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 173 

dead elephant, before taking which any natives block- 
ing the way had to be moved aside, and so he thought 
that the driving away of natives was a sine qua non. 
Seeing his action, an officious head man on the other 
bank shouted out to everybody to clear out, the crowd 
on both banks disappeared like lightning, those in the 
water ducked or scuttled out of the way, and there 
was nothing left to take but the empty river. 

Slowly the people returned, but did not devote them- 
selves to their water sports in the same whole-hearted 
way as before and cast anxious glances from time to 
time at my camera. So I put it away and prepared to 
depart, when those on the opposite bank shouted at me 
and a man came tumbling across the river to say that 
the chief was bringing some milk for me. 

This same chief was minus a finger, the raw stump of 
which I dressed for him. He made desperate efforts 
to get me milk such as I could drink, and it was only 
on the third day that I finally got it pure by sending 
my cook to superintend the milking. The first con- 
signment that was brought was of very ancient date 
and covered by a green fungus. 

Two years later I visited this spot, after the enclave 
had been taken over by the Sudan government. This 
same chief recognised me at once, as was attested by his 
waggling the stump of his finger at me. He said that 
he was going to bring me some milk, and one of my 
servants, who knew nothing about my former visit, as 



174 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

then I only had natives with me from Uganda and 
East Africa, tried to explain to him how to obtain the 
milk clean. He was very indignant and said, ''Do you 
think I don't know how the white man likes his milk, 
when he doctored my finger and I brought him milk 
every day ? '' 

The natives with me had heard such stories about the 
Lugware and how it was impossible to go near them, 
that they were very astonished to find that I had been 
there before and was on friendly terms with all the 
chiefs. 

Whilst in the country of the knockabouts, elephant 
spoor led me twice past spots at which I had recently 
killed elephant, a coincidence that I have noticed 
before. 

I moved up the river and the knockabouts returned 
to their homes, he of the pagoda hat looking more 
eccentric than ever in a pair of my pajamas. 

Whilst stopping at the next village, great consterna- 
tion and alarm were caused by a native coming into 
camp and insisting on sleeping by the camp-fire. He 
was persuaded by the cook to go away but soon he 
returned saying that he had been home to feed and that 
now he had come back to sleep. My cook came and 
told me of this, and said that it was certain that he 
meditated some mischief, such as murdering us all while 
we were asleep or stealing a rifle. Would a man, the 
cook argued, leave his house, his wife, his children, and 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 175 



all his goods to come and sleep by a stranger's camp-fire 
unless he meditated some dark action? His house was 
but a stone's throw away and it would be easy for him 
to return home and come back in the morning. 

I had the mysterious stranger brought to me. He 
was a pleasant looking and cheerfully disposed youth. 
As we only had a few words in common, the interview 
was not productive of much, but I gathered that he 
had brought a chicken earlier in the day as a present. 
Thinking that the cause of his not wanting to lose sight 
of us might be that he had not yet received anything in 
exchange, I made him a present, and asked him if he 
was going home. No; he was going to sleep by our fire. 

As we were absolutely dependent on the good-will of 
the natives for food, and we always tried to estabhsh 
as friendly relations as possible, I told Husseni to let 
him be, but to be careful about leaving anything about, 
whilst I put all my rifles under my bed. 

We woke up in considerable trepidation next morning, 
but soon discovered that we were all alive and well, 
and the rifles all safe, whflst the genial stranger was stfll 
with us. He excused himself to get breakfast, and a 
few minutes later returned to accompany me out hunt- 
ing. During the whole of our stay in the country, we 
found the much maligned Lugware most friendly and 
hospitable. They were, it is true, raw and utterly 
unsophisticated savages, but nevertheless they always 
made us feel welcome. 



176 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

The river having gone down sufficiently, we crossed 
to the other side, and our friends came to the bank 
with us and bade us good-bye, and waved their 
hands at us as if we were never going to see them 
again, whereas we were going to camp just an hour 
away. 

After choosing a site for camp, I went out hunting 
and shortly came on a spoor which joined some others. 
I was about to follow the newest, when a little Baganda 
porter called Maliko pointed out that the original and 
older spoor was of a bigger elephant and so I took that. 
When we got out into less hard country, we found that 
it was really a big elephant, and a lone one, for it never 
joined any others, so I rewarded Maliko with a vest on 
return to camp. 

This elephant seemed to prefer to walk downwind and 
gave us a long hunt. At last, when the spoor began to 
show traces of being quite fresh and we were expecting 
every moment to overhaul him, the old fool marched 
down wind straight into the plantations of some villages 
and then hearing the people shouting got alarmed 
and stampeded off, so we had to begin the long track 
all over again. 

At last we came out on a stream, and my porters 
urged me to go back, as the stream was too deep to 
wade and the elephant evidently did not intend to stop. 
I was not going to be diverted so easily, especially as I 
figured out enormous tusks, so undressed and crossed 





Elephants shot in the Lado Enclave 

The tusks of the upper one scaled 94 and 86 pounds. The shooting of the lower 
elephant is described in this chapter. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 177 

the stream, which after all was only up to the armpits 
but was going very fast. 

Again the old elephant steered down wind and it 
seemed hopeless; however, we stolidly held the spoor 
till it crossed the wind again. Suddenly, coming round 
a corner, I got the start I had been preparing for for so 
long, as there he was, standing forty yards away. I 
thought that I would make certain of him, so exchanged 
the mannlicher for the big bore; not without some diffi- 
culty, however, as directly we saw him, the gallant 
Maliko retired with it. 

I came up again and let loose both barrels. The ele- 
phant moved forward a bit and stood evidently badly 
shaken up. I must make certain of him and so turned 
for the mannlicher. The trusty Maliko was twenty or 
thirty yards in the rear. There was no time to be lost so 
I ran to him. Maliko misinterpreted this action, how- 
ever, and came to the conclusion that I was hotly pur- 
sued by the elephant. The bush was thick and he 
could not see from where he was, so he turned and 
fled whilst I pursued him. 

Finally I got the mannlicher and came back again 
and found my elephant patiently awaiting me. I fired 
four shots with the mannlicher, each of which misfired. 
I found afterwards that whilst crossing the river, water 
had got into the bolt and rusted it, a thing which had 
never happened with my old one, which I had had 
seven years, whilst this was a new one. 

N 



178 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

The mannlicher being useless, I must needs get my 
big bore again, and again Maliko retired before me. 
Finally I got the big bore and returned again to my old 
position. The elephant was still standing in the same 
place, only now he had turned away from me instead 
of being broadside. Probably he would have fallen 
anyhow in another few minutes, as he must have been 
very badly hit not to move. Anyhow, I would make 
certain of him, so I moved up close alongside and put a 
shot into the shoulder and he dropped. 

The enormous tusks I had imagined from the size 
of the spoor were only forty pounds. The size of the 
spoor is generally a very fair test of age and, hence, size 
of tusk. Of the five elephant we shot in Uganda, my 
rule came out exactly. Here are the weights of tusks 
and sizes of spoor. 

1. size of spoor, iqJ" weight of two tusks, 114 lbs. 

2. size of spoor, 20" weight of two tusks, 126 lbs. 

3. size of spoor, 20J" weight of two tusks, 132 J lbs. 

4. size of spoor, 21" weight of two tusks, 136 lbs. 

5. size of spoor, 22" weight of two tusks, 172J lbs. 

However, there are often exceptions to this rule and 
this was one, as his spoor was twenty and a half inches 
and the weight of the two tusks seventy-nine pounds. 
I have noticed, though, that elephant have bigger feet 
in some countries than others. The relative sizes of 
tusk and foot are fairly uniform in one country, but 
cannot be compared so well with measurements from 
another. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 179 



The elephant had taken us round in a circle and so 
we were not so very far from our camp. We shortly 
struck a path which took us to a village and from there 
we got a guide to take us by the shortest way back to 
camp. 

As we approached camp, we met all our friends from 
the other side of the river who had bidden us such a long 
and affectionate good-bye that morning. They were 
all unrestrainedly drunk, having got into this state 
at the expense of the villages this side. 

The chief was waving an unfortunate fowl round his 
head, which he had brought me as a present. They 
rushed to greet us as if they had not seen us for years, 
and tears and protestations of undying friendship, 
interluded with hiccups, were showered on us. 

I took down the bolt of my rifle and cleaned the 
firing pin and spring. It fired all right after this, but 
the spring had been weakened, and I was badly let 
down later with the same rifle. This was a new rifle 
bought from a gunmaker I imagined to be as good as 
any in England. I had not taken down the bolt of my 
old mannlicher for years and I now did so and found 
the spring and firing pin as good as ever. 

A great feature of native information is its extraor- 
dinary inaccuracy. Some one hears from some one else 
that spoor has been seen, and he comes into camp and 
declares he has just seen elephant, and fills in pictur- 
esque details from his imagination. From long practice, 



i8o HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I have become inured to disappointments in this respect 
and never expect to find anything resembling what has 
been described to me. If a man rushes in breathless to 
say that two elephant are standing just behind my tent, 
I finish breakfast calmly and then prepare for a long 
day. I go out expecting to see anything or nothing. 
There is one thing I feel fairly certain about and that 
is, if we do see elephant it may be any number from one 
to &ve hundred, but that we most certainly will not 
meet with the exact number enumerated. 

As I write now, I have just returned from a hunt after 
two males reported with tusks as long as a spear. I 
went out and actually did see elephant; they were six 
small tuskers, and I marvelled at the extraordinary 
accuracy of the information. There is not much differ- 
ence between two and six. After I had left them 
and come back, a second native, not knowing that I had 
been out, came across them and rushed in to tell me 
that there were three and he had been watching them 
aU day. 

Whilst out near Hargeisa in Somaliland once, I 
came on a leopard. I forget if I fired and missed, 
or whether I did not get time for a shot. Anyhow, the 
leopard was only a second or so in sight and bounded off. 
Presently a Somali appeared and told me that he had 
driven the leopard from bush to bush by throwing 
stones at it, from a place about ten miles off so as to let 
me have a shot at it. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY i8i 

I apologised for not shooting it, and asked him if he 
would mind just driving it back again and I would be 
ready for it this time. This was of course an attempt 
to extort bakshish on the assumption that white men 
were the most inconceivable idiots. 

The genial black's false information is, however, quite 
spontaneous. I believe he half or wholly believes it all 
himself, or at best he does it to please. Therefore, it is 
ridiculous getting annoyed with him for what he cannot 
help, and I always feel vexed with myself afterwards, 
if I have allowed myself to show any signs of bad 
temper. The Arabs realise that the black cannot help 
making these occasional howlers, and are often wonder- 
fully long-suffering with them on this account. Instance 
the stories in the Arabian Nights of ^' the three apples," 
and also the slave who told one lie a year. 

In the first, a senseless lie on the part of a slave 
causes a man to kill his wife on the charge of infidelity, 
and in the second, the slave causes all sorts of disasters. 
In both cases, the slaves went unpunished; they were 
not even whipped. 

On the day after shooting the elephant just described, 
I got very irritable over some false information brought 
in, an irritability which might be natural in a novice 
but unpardonable in one who had had so much experi- 
ence of the black. At 6.30 a.m., a youth daslied into 
my camp, as I was having a leisurely breakfast, to be 
followed by a quiet restful hunt near camp, and said 



i82 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

that he had that moment seen three elephant with 
tusks as long as his arms outstretched. 

This was the stock length for tusks in this country, 
just as in Uganda they are always the length of the nar- 
rator's spear, about eight feet out of the gums. I took 
no notice of the latter statement, but I really thought 
that he might have seen elephant or fresh spoor. I 
continued my breakfast, and asked if he had heard 
about them or really seen them. ^'Seen them?" He 
pointed to his eyes and said that moment he had just 
come from looking at them. 

As it was 6.30 A.M., there had been scarcely an hour of 
daylight so far, so if he had seen elephant or spoor that 
day, the very farthest it could be was one hour away 
and the chances were that it was half that distance. 
So I set out after the youth and we walked two solid 
hours through villages northwards. Then we came to 
a small viUage and my guide sat down and had a long 
conversation with a man of the village. 

Another man was produced. The youth cheerfully 
admitted, on being pressed, that it was not really him- 
self, but this man, who had actually seen the elephant 
this morning. Of course this was manifestly impossible, 
as news could not have reached my camp by 6.30, but 
such is most native information and the point remained 
that there probably were or had been elephant in the 
neighbourhood, to make them think of coming to tell 
me. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 183 

I now set out with the new guide. This time we 
went through the bush. We walked for another soHd 
two hours without seeing a trace of elephant new or old. 
I then got annoyed and sent him away. I continued 
with my porters and we actually did find the spoor of a 
solitary elephant. We followed it till 5.30 p.m., but 
it was still old spoor of the night before, and so we 
returned to camp, tired and cross. The annoying part 
was that where we finally left the spoor was the other 
side of camp and in the exact locality I had intended 
to hunt over that day. If I had pursued my original 
intention, we might have struck the spoor at eight 
o'clock in the morning at the place in which we left it 
at 5.30 that evening and so had the whole day before 
us to follow it on from there. 

Having played out this locality, we moved on to 
Mount Gessi. Here I got on to the spoor of a herd, 
but the natives, in their eagerness for meat and desire 
to bring me back news, rushed out ahead of me and 
gave them their wind. 

The people near Gessi were so pleasant that I decided 
to wait there a few days, or to make short expeditions 
and return again, especially as I was expecting Hart up 
shortly. There was a very intelligent boy here, the 
son of the chief, who arranged all my hunting in the 
vicinity, and spent his whole time at our camp sewing 
shirts out of the calico I gave him. 

I shot two elephant under the mountain one day, 



i84 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

one a one-tusker. The second I had followed up 
wounded; when I found him standing and put a 
shot into him, he charged backwards into a thick 
patch of bush and finally sat down. I have never seen 
an elephant perform a similar evolution. He almost 
pranced like a rearing horse and moved some thirty 
yards or more stern first. 

When he disappeared from sight in the bush, I could 
see nothing of him, although I reconnoitred carefully. 
Finally I followed into the bush, but it was so dense 
that I still could not see, till suddenly I came round a 
thick patch and found him with ears spread out, a few 
yards from me and still breathing. However, he was 
imable to rise and I finished him as he sat. 

Whilst wandering over the hills, I passed the old site 
of a Belgian camp at Mount Wati. The old road had 
overgrown, but on the site of the station there was only 
short grass. Amongst this, I found, to my delight, 
some small button tomatoes. This was a great find, 
as not only had one no meat, but also the only vege- 
tables I had been able to obtain for the last week 
or so were a few sweet potatoes, and very hard, dry 
beans. 

I am not fond of elephant meat ; in fact it is tough, 
strong, and distasteful to me, but I had to subsist on it 
occasionally. Two days after killing these two ele- 
phant, I began to be very hard up for provisions. I 
had not made any biltong of elephant meat as I might 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 185 

have done, I had grown to dishke it so. I had no milk, 
flour, sauce, or anything left. For three days I sub- 
sisted on beans and bovril. I managed to get a lamb 
about the size of a chicken but kept this for Hart's 
arrival. It is a boring diet, beans and coarse millet 
pulse for breakfast and ditto for dinner; moreover, it 
upsets the stomach. 

It might be thought that the natives treated me 
badly in the way of produce; they really were very good 
but had nothing. A pumpkin was brought up for me 
from a village a day away. When very hungry, I 
bethought me of a village we had passed about ten or 
fifteen miles back, at which the chief had come out and 
presented me with a chicken. I sent a party back to 
this village with presents to try to obtain another. 
As I have said, the people had been robbed and looted 
by different expeditions and the surrounding tribes 
and had nothing, or what they had was hidden in the 
bush miles away. 

When my people came to this village and asked for a 
chicken, the old chief said, ''There is my village; go in 
and see what you can find. If you find any chicken 
there, take it and give it to the white man; but you 
will find nothing, for the one I gave him was the 
last one I had." Being natives they went and looked 
and found that the old man's words were true. I 
think that this is almost the most generous thing I 
have known of and the reader can imagine that one 



i86 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

has had a soft spot in one's heart for the Lugware 
ever since. 

Later, when I was in the service of the Sudan govern- 
ment, all the tribes round came to complain of the enor- 
mities committed by the Lugware, — how they killed 
and pillaged everybody and how I must not go near 
them without troops. I listened politely and then 
went up to their country. As I had imagined, they were 
not the aggressors. They had been shamefully robbed 
and looted by better armed tribes, but they are a fairly 
truculent people and any attempts made by them to 
regain what actually belonged to them, of stock and 
enslaved children, had been magnified into unprovoked 
and uncalled for assaults. 

They are better off now, as they have had a little time 
in which to recover, but at that time they really were 
in a poverty-stricken condition. 

On the bean diet I was really very bored till Hart 
suddenly rolled up, bringing fresh supplies from Nimule. 
I had had a shelter built at my camp, which afforded 
pleasant shade during the day. I returned from an 
expedition after elephant and found that Hart had 
arrived, and we feasted on such luxuries as bread, jam, 
tea, milk, and sardines and the lamb I had saved up. 
Next day Hart trekked on, whilst I returned to the 
following up of an elephant I had wounded. 



CHAPTER XII 

ELEPHANT HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 

{Continued) 

This elephant hunt began before Hart arrived back, 
but as it finished after he left again, I have kept it in one 
to make it more consecutive. 

Whilst at the camp I had made at Gessi, a native 
came in to tell me about one lone elephant who lived 
by himself and never moved from a certain spot. I 
have so often heard about him that I begin to know him 
well, although I have never met him. I have heard 
about him in Uganda and in Nyasaland, but here he 
seems specially to thrive. He is so old that he can 
hardly move, his tusks touch the ground as he walks, 
he is always by himself, and stands about in the same 
place for months at a time. 

I was taken down to a village three hours distant and 
from here we commenced our search. After wander- 
ing about for many hours we had come on no more 
recent tracks than some three days old. These had 
been seen the day before, and the rest of the story 
had been built up on this foundation. 

We arrived back at the village at 3 p.m. and the 
chief brought out food for the porters with me. As 

187 



i88 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

we were sitting at this village some men came in from 
another and said that they had seen ten elephant close 
to their village. On receipt of this news, we imme- 
diately started off again. 

Now I think a hunter who has been going from smi- 
rise to 3 p.m. on false news and then, whilst still three 
hours away from his camp, starts on new khahar at 
that time, either deserves some great reward, or ought 
to be restrained under lock and key. 

We followed our new guide through a few villages, 
and then met two men who rushed sweating out of the 
bush and said, ^' There they are just there.'' We 
followed these new men for an hour and they led us to a 
place where elephant had been standing for their mid- 
day halt, but had evidently moved on some three hours 
ago. 

Still undaunted, we proceeded till sunset and were 
then just about to abandon pursuit, when I heard 
something move in front. I listened and heard the 
rustling of a big body pushing through the bushes. I 
hurried on and found that one big bull had detached 
himself from the spoor of the remainder, and he it was 
that we had heard. He had evidently got our wind 
and was moving on fast. I raced down his track and it 
led us round in a semicircle till it joined the spoor of 
the others again. Once more I heard a rustling ahead 
and so ran on. 

Now an old bull very often cannot be bored to go 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 189 

right away when he gets your wind, but he will stam- 
pede perhaps eight hundred yards and then stop, and 
listen for you and try to get your wind. If he finds that 
he is still being followed, he will do another stampede 
and wait again. After a time he gets tired of this 
game and either goes right off or gets seriously annoyed. 

This is what this old bull had been doing ; he had 
hurried away from my wind two if not three times, 
and now I was running after him again. I fancied 
that I saw something moving in the bushes about fifty 
yards away and next moment I was aware that an 
elephant was crashing towards me. The bushes were 
too dense to see through, he was coming from my left, 
whilst in front of me was a more open space of about 
twenty yards across and then thick bush again. 

I hurriedly skipped across this space and turned 
round just in time to see an elephant with magnificent 
great tusks come out and stand on the exact spot on 
which I had been stationed a moment before. On 
arrival there, he missed the wind and stood moving his 
trunk round nosing for a whiff. I had a splendid clear 
broadside shot, and raised the mannlicher which had 
played me false before. I had two beautiful misfires, 
and then the third shot went off. It was badly aimed, 
as I hardly expected it to fire, and it hit him too far 
back. 

Nevertheless, he dropped on his knees and I tried 
another shot, which was also a misfire. I found after- 



igo HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

wards that the striker spring had broken and it was a 
wonder that it went off at all. The rifle was now suc- 
cessfully out of action till later I managed to fit it with 
a new spring at Nimule. 

I then bethought me of the big bore. The last I had 
seen of it was in the hands of a porter, who was called the 
Kirongozi, or the guide, making tracks into the bush. 
I yelled loudly for him and ran to where I had last seen 
him. As I ran, I looked back and saw the elephant 
slowly pick himself up and begin a stately retirement. 
It was now nearly dark and by the time I had secured 
the big bore the elephant was nowhere to be seen. I 
raced down his track till I could not see to go any 
farther and then gave up, cursing the gunmaker and 
the Kirongozi indiscriminately. 

The elephant had a . truly beautiful pair of tusks, 
enormously thick and massive. It is very difficult to 
judge the weight when seen like that, but they must 
have been well over the hundred and as they were so 
thick they might easily have been one hundred and 
twenty or one hundred and thirty. 

A long trek back in the dark did not improve my 
frame of mind, and when the cook served my dinner, I 
stated my views about the bravery of Baganda and 
Banyoro at some length, instancing Maliko and the 
Kirongozi as typical examples. My remarks were 
both unjust and unfair, as they were but porters, and 
were not paid for the work of gunbearers. My own 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 191 



gunbearer, Tengeneza, was with Hart, and he was as 
staunch a fellow as one could possibly wish to meet. 
After some fifteen or sixteen hours' trek there was 
nothing better than beans for dinner mixed with red 
millet flour. Perhaps on a better meal I should have 
felt more generously disposed. 

I decided to start early next morning and take my 
camp down to last night's village, and try to find the 
wounded big-tusker. Once a night has elapsed, how- 
ever, it is a thankless task and hardly worth under- 
taking. The almost invariable procedure of a wounded 
elephant, when night comes on, is to make a series of 
winds and turns in thick grass and bush, which will per- 
haps take six hours walking or more to cover. Then 
having successfully bewildered any one who may fol- 
low, as they appear to imagine, they trek straight out 
of the district to an enormous distance. It is prac- 
tically impossible to cover their night's walk during the 
hours of dayhght next day. 

To a late hour I heard the cook lecturing Httle Maliko 
and the Kirongozi about their enormities. Before 
dayhght next day, we packed up and were ready to trek 
at sunrise. We were just about to move, when a native 
rushed in to say that he had that moment seen two 
bulls. Yes, he had seen them both with his own eyes. 
Apparently, a native never sees spoor when he is out 
by himself; he always sees the animal itself. 

Two bulls in the hand appeared better than one in 



192 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the bush, so I left my porters with instructions to wait 
till two o'clock and, if I was not back by then, to pitch 
camp again in the same spot. The cook placed the 
big bore in Maliko's hands with final instructions on 
how to deport himself, and we started off. 

A short trek down the pathway and we came to 
spoor of the night before. We followed this and I at 
once noticed that it was the track of one animal not of 
two. Just to chaff the native I said, "This is one. 
Where is the other? " The ready imagination of the 
savage was quite equal to the emergency. He had 
seen this elephant and he walked on till he met two 
other animals who had come from Mount Gessi. He 
was quite certain about this, although the mountain 
was seven or eight miles distant. Then the one had 
trekked on whilst the two were standing under a tree. 

I began to look attentively at the spoor and then 
suddenly realised, of all wonderful strokes of luck, it 
was my wounded bull of yesterday. He had done his 
six hours of winding and twisting and turning in the 
thick country below, all of which we were saved, and 
this was his trek away. He was going along at a good 
pace and never stopped except once for a roll in a mud 
hole. About the other two reported, our guide was 
quite certain that they were standing under a tree 
close by ; he had seen them there. 

I thought that we might have a look before going on, 
as it was quite possible for other elephant to be about. 




Photographs by R. A. Osborne. 

Baby Elephant with Dead Mother 
The young one was only discovered after it had been found necessary to shoot the 

female. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 193 

He pointed out the exact spot, and after taking elabo- 
rate precautions for wind, we approached only to 
find that the whole story was a myth and there was no 
spoor at all. I then hastened back and cut the spoor 
of my bull farther on. It was still my bull and I had 
no doubt about it, but the native pointed to it trium- 
phantly and said that that was the spoor of the two 
other bulls he had seen and they must have moved on. 

At last we came to a tree where he had stood for a 
moment and then moved on into some thick grass fif- 
teen feet high. Remembering his behaviour of yester- 
day, I was really very difiident about following him 
through this stuff. 

I must now leave the elephant, to remark on little 
Maliko. I was full of contempt for him before, but 
after this day I considered him the pluckiest person 
I have ever met. A man may do a rash or foolhardy 
thing without being in the least plucky. It is all a 
matter of temperament. If a man, while in a ghastly 
funk, performs a plucky action I consider him a real 
hero. 

I remember once, when a boy, hearing a story of two 
soldiers going into battle together, one a fire-eater, and 
the other a well-known coward. As the first few shells 
came whizzing past, the former looked on the latter's 
pale face and said, "Hulloa, old fellow, how do you feel 
now, eh ? " The latter repHed, "If you felt like I do 
now, you would be running away.'' 



194 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Now little Maliko had received such a wigging from 
the cook that he felt heartily ashamed of himself. He 
foUov/ed close at my heels with the spare rifle and as 
we entered this thick stuff, his teeth were chattering 
and yet he valiantly stuck to me. Once or twice, I 
stopped suddenly to listen, and poor little Maliko 
started out of his skin, thinking that the elephant was 
at hand. I saw that he was about to run, and then he 
pulled himself together and stood his ground. 

We got through this thick bit and both Maliko and 
myself breathed freer. Our respite was only for a 
moment though, as presently we came to a bottom 
of thick grass and reeds in which the track wound about 
and sometimes was nothing but a tunnel through the 
stalks of the grass which met overhead. I came round 
a corner suddenly on to a tree, under which the elephant 
had stood, and I felt glad that he had had the consider- 
ation to move on, as it would have been quite an awk- 
ward meeting at such close quarters. 

Still we burrowed on through the reeds, little Maliko, 
shivering with fright, following close behind me. Sud- 
denly, in one of the numerous windings, I was brought 
up sharp by a great black mass in front of me. There 
he was half -facing me exactly five yards away. This 
is the closest I have ever been to an African bull, un- 
conscious of my presence, except that in the South 
Kensington Museum, and the closest I ever wish to be. 

As I stood, one of his enormous tusks just came in the 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 195 



way of the heart shot. If I had moved back a foot, the 
grass would have been in my way and I certainly was 
not going to move forward another inch. I had to do 
something. If I retired, I could never get in a position 
from which I could see him, so I decided to fire, aiming 
just to miss the tusk. 

I cannot imagine now why I did not go for the head 
shot. Anyhow, I fired into his side just too far back 
for the heart ; he plunged into the grass, and I took the 
precaution to reload before following. When I came 
out of the thick bed of reeds, I saw him crossing a broad, 
shallow valley. Before I was half-way across this, he 
was going up the opposite slope. 

I followed at a run and caught him up in some bush 
country where I had occasional views of his stern. I 
fired into this and ran on reloading as I went. After 
I had repeated this operation several times, I was in the 
act of reloading, when I heard a scream of rage and he 
was charging back along his own track. I had no time 
to complete reloading before he was on top of me. 
I cowered behind a thorn bush about one and a half 
feet in height, at one side of the track, and he brushed 
past, his extended ear passing over my head. 

He stopped about twenty yards beyond me, testing 
the wind. I reloaded and tried to move round for a 
shot, as his back was to me; but before I had got to 
a good position, he was gone and I never saw him 
again. 



196 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Maliko appeared after a time with the spare rifle, 
looking very scared. I noticed that the muzzle was 
plugged up with mud, showing that it had been dropped. 
It was lucky that I had not suddenly required it in 
this condition, as it probably would have burst. As 
a storm was breaking and it was well on in the after- 
noon, I returned to camp. 

Next day numbers of natives went out to look for the 
elephant. They were to bring me in news which way 
he had gone and I was to take on my camp and try to 
find him. I have said that it is fairly hopeless trying 
to get a wounded elephant once a night has intervened. 
I have never yet done so but I am always just as op- 
timistic. I believe that a wounded elephant after 
travelling forty miles or so reaches some place where 
he does not move about much till he has recovered. 

I have often wounded an elephant and come up with 
him again the same day and then finished him, but 
never yet retrieved one that has got away wounded, 
once the night falls. I have, it is true, twice shot ele- 
phant late in the evening and not found them till after- 
wards, but that is a different thing, as in both cases 
they were lying dead quite near the spot at which I 
shot them and could not be considered to have got 
away. 

It fills me with surprise how some men seem to get 
their elephant, year after year, by going out and shooting 
at elephant and then sending natives to retrieve them. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 197 

In a week or fortnight, the tusks roll up. In all my 
experience, I have never got an elephant that I did not 
actually down myself, on the same day, except the 
two alluded to above. 

However, I determined that this big elephant should 
be an exception, and intended to follow the spoor just 
so long as we could hold it, even if it was a week or ten 
days. 

News was brought in that he had crossed the big 
river, and so I took my camp on there and picked up the 
spoor, which was now old. I had an abscess on my leg, 
no doubt caused by the poverty of feeding of the last 
few weeks. It was intensely painful, till after two days 
walking it burst, which relieved the pain. I thought 
all would be well then, but on the third day my foot had 
swollen to such an extent that I was unable to get on 
my boot, and so I had to give up my big elephant and 
return to my camp, carried by my men. 

On my return to the camp at Mount Gessi, I heard 
that our brother-ofhcer, Captain Craigie Halkett, 
had been smashed up by an elephant near Wadelai. 
Afterwards I learnt that he had been charged in thick 
grass and that the elephant had stabbed him through the 
thigh with his tusk, and had then taken him up and 
thrown him away; he landed on his shoulder, which 
caused a big contusion. No medical assistance was 
available, and he lay in a critical condition till the 
steamer came, when he was taken to Butiaba and 



igS HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

carried to Entebbe. Subsequently he completely 
recovered from this smash-up and is now as fit as ever. 

After my abscess had healed up and the swelling 
gone down, I set off on the Dufile Road. This had be- 
come completely overgrown since the time of the Bel- 
gians and we lost the track for hours at a time. We 
reached the old Belgian station of Arenga, v/hich had 
been burnt down by the natives, and I found some more 
tomatoes here, which pleased me greatly. The instinct 
of getting something unexpectedly for nothing is 
common to all mankind. As a friend of mine said, 
"Even a millionnaire is delighted to pick up sixpence 
in the street." It is something of the same spirit 
v/hich prompts the poacher; whilst the pleasure the 
fisherman and shooter find in devouring the spoils of 
their chase is not lessened by the thought that they 
have not paid for them. 

We obtained two guides to show us the way, and 
when we camped, a crowd of people surrounded us to 
watch the process of pitching the tents and comment 
thereon. As I was afraid that our two guides would 
get lost in the crowd and be unrecognisable later, I 
pointed them out, whilst I still knew who they were, to 
Husseni, so that they might be duly rewarded. Hus- 
seni, to make quite certain that the right men should 
get the presents, pounced on them and drew them out 
of the crowd, placing them on one side, till the loads of 
trade goods should be opened. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 199 

This action the crowd misinterpreted. They saw 
two of their number smelt out, or detected by some 
process, and dragged aside to meet their doom. There 
was no telling on whom the finger of fate would next 
fall, and so they all fled incontinently to a safe dis- 
tance. When they perceived that the two suspects 
each received a present of salt and cloth, they re- 
turned, looking very fooHsh, no doubt imagining that 
if they had waited, others too might have been put 
on the proscribed list for punishment with salt and 
calico. 

A day or two's march from Dufile, I met with a 
country of enormously tall grass. Here I came on the 
spoor of a herd and, following it, came up with them 
near enough to hear, but was unable to see anything. 
After manoeuvring some time, I climbed a tree about 
sixty yards from where they were standing and saw only 
females and young. However, they moved on again 
before I had satisfied myself that there was not a bull 
in the herd. 

I followed on again and presently heard the rumble of 
an elephant from one side. Thinking that it was one 
of the herd become detached, I circled round, for had I 
continued after the herd, I should have given him my 
wind. Suddenly I got a glimpse of the author of the 
rumble at about fifty yards' distance, a convenient ele- 
phant path, where the grass had been trampled down, 
just allowing me a glance at him down its vista. 



200 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

He was a bull, but I put him down as quite a small 
one. However, as far as I could see, he was as good as 
anything in the herd, and as I was suffering from ele- 
phant hunger, not having shot one for some time, I let 
drive at him. It appeared afterwards that he did not 
belong to the herd but was a lone bull who happened 
to be passing from the opposite direction. 

He disappeared into the grass and I followed his 
track, which went down wind. There was a copious 
blood spoor, but owing to his proceeding down wind and 
the thickness of the grass, which never enabled me to 
see more than a few yards, it was a most unpleasant 
business to follow. The day was sultry and there was 
not a breath of air, whilst the elephantine grass crushed 
in on all sides. 

As I proceeded, one of my putties got loose. It 
became looser and looser till the end was trailing on the 
ground. Now to stop in the middle of an elephant 
track, with grass choking one on all sides, and to stoop 
over and undo, roll up, and re tie one's puttie is a very 
unpleasant job. The sun overhead strikes one's back 
and neck, the blood runs to one's head, and the stalks 
of grass get in one's way and have a knack of getting 
tied up inside the puttie. 

For this reason I went on and on, the puttie becoming 
looser and looser, hoping to meet with some ant-hill 
or tree on which to rest my foot while arranging it. At 
last there was a yard or so of puttie trailing behind me 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 201 

as I walked, and yet I was too lazy to stop and attend 
to it. 

Presently I met a sapling alongside the path and it 
forked just about three feet above the ground. I put 
my foot up in the fork and started work on the puttie. 
I had just got it off and was commencing to roll it up, 
preparatory to retying it, when I heard from close by 
the very faint but unmistakable sound of an elephant's 
ear rubbing against his side. My foot was already in 
the tree fork, and it required little effort to raise myself 
up on it, but still I could see nothing. There was 
another fork a few feet up, and I raised myself into this 
and saw the elephant's head. He was facing me at 
thirty yards' distance, and the wind was blowing straight 
from me to him. 

I let drive at his forehead from this position, but what 
with my efforts to hold on, I was unable to note what 
happened on my shot. All I could see was that he had 
disappeared. I approached a little nearer and could 
see nothing. I then found another elephant path at 
right angles and circled round on it but again saw 
nothing. Finally I plucked up courage and made 
straight for the spot at which I had seen him. I saw 
nothing till within a few yards and then got a glimpse 
of a black form on the ground. I came nearer and 
found him lying dead. To my surprise he was 
a very fine tusker. The grass in this locality was so 
enormous that it had quite dwarfed him, and being 



202 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

alone there was nothing else with which to compare 
him. 

I examined the place carefully and came to the con- 
clusion that if I had followed his spoor I might have 
seen him from a distance of ten yards; but this was 
doubtful and it would have been more probable that I 
should have had to come within five yards of him to get 
my first view. Of course I could not have had the 
faintest idea that he would have been there and it was 
only the very gentle ear-flap that warned me of his 
presence. 

Now the moral of the story is this. If my puttie 
had not come down, or if I had been such a tidy and 
methodical person that it would have been more pain- 
ful to me to walk along with a dragging puttie than to 
stoop in the sun to do it up, I should certainly not have 
had that warning. He had my wind and was evi- 
dently waiting for me. I should have walked up with- 
in ten or five yards of him without knowing that he 
was there, if he had not let me know before, but it is 
more probable that he would have charged at fifteen 
or twenty yards. 

On my return to camp, I found that Husseni had 
bought a small Serval cat for me. He was sitting in 
the basket in which the chickens were carried on the 
march. Unfortunately, he died before he reached an 
age at which it would have been really dangerous for 
the chickens to have him as a fellow-passenger. 



HUNTING IN THE LUGWARE COUNTRY 203 

Husseni, ever zealous in trying to keep me well fed 
under very difficult circumstances, was in a great state 
of exhilaration. He said that he had just concluded 
an arrangement by which I could get two sheep, a 
luxury I had not tasted since the small lamb I got at 
Gessi. One of the villagers had brought an old broken 
musket to be mended, and Husseni had ■ spent the 
greater part of the day in bargaining v/ith him what he 
would pay for my services as gunsmith, and it was 
finally assessed at two sheep. 

The musket was produced, a very old, rusty gas 
barrel of the tower-musket t>pe, and, on first sight, I 
despaired of being able to do anything to it. However, 
on taking it to pieces and cleaning the parts and learn- 
ing the mechanism, I saw that it was not in such bad 
order as it appeared. The chief thing wrong with it 
was that a pin was missing. Whilst the elephant was 
being cut up and the tusks extracted, I spent the time 
filing down an old screw into the proper shape to fit. 
Finally my efforts were crowned with success and on 
assembling the pieces I found that the hammer 
snapped all right. 

The owner was very pleased at this, but he said the 
final test must be to see that it fired all right, and he 
produced cap and powder. Now the old gas pipe was 
so shaky and the barrel so rusty that I certainly was 
not going to take the risk of letting it off. I had only 
agreed to mend it, not to endanger my eyesight. 



204 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

So I said of course I could let it off if I liked, as I was 
a white man and knew all about guns. The question 
was, could he let it off? If he fired, and it went 
off, then would he know that it was all right. So the 
musket was loaded and the owner shut both eyes and 
pulled the trigger. To my relief it went off and did 
not burst. 

Then came the question of payment. He had 
promised two sheep, but native-like he tried to get out 
of paying. Husseni collared the gun and said that we 
should take it away with us if he did not pay. He 
then brought one sheep, which I had killed and began 
eating at once, so as to have no doubt about that. After 
a tremendous discussion with Husseni, he finally com- 
pounded for the second sheep by bringing four chickens, 
which were put in the basket with the Serval. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE HAPPY BANTU 

To understand the good-humoured, happy-go-lucky 
Bantu savage one must try to picture to oneself vividly 
the limitations under which he exists. Often one finds 
oneself unnecessarily incensed against him over a 
matter which is absolutely beyond his comprehension. 
I complained of the stupidity of some porters one day 
to a friend, who replied, ^^ It is a good thing for us that 
they are so stupid, for if they had any intelligence they 
would never agree to hunk our loads round the country 
for us." 

Once I was making desperate efforts to get some 
native porters to place a number of bales in an approx- 
imately straight line, so that I could count and check 
them. The chief difficulty I laboured under was that 
there was no word for ^' straight '' in their language. 
When I came to think it out, those natives had never in 
their lives seen a straight line or anything straight. 
Their huts are round, their trees crooked, they lived in a 
state of nature, and there is nothing that I know of in 
nature that is straight except the horizon at sea. 

The same thing applies to balance, level, and almost 
everything that we have to do with in our life. It 
used to be exasperating work hoisting the heavy spars 

205 



2o6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

for the building of beacons, and the natives employed 
were professional porters and by no means so dense 
as the raw savage. One used to arrange the men under 
the spar with forked poles to push the end upwards. 
On each side would be one or two to steady it from 
swaying to right or left. It seemed useless to explain 
to them that if the whole lot got to one side as the pole 
was going up, it would be impossible to keep control 
of it in the air. That in order to get it up, it must be 
pushed from underneath or by an equal number of 
men both sides. 

A moment after it started, there would be twenty 
men lustily pushing it from one side and one unfor- 
tunate individual supporting it from the other, too 
stupid and too happy-go-lucky to realise the danger 
he was in of being flattened out by the falling spar. 

What could such people know of leverage or dy- 
namics ? How were they to know that, if they pushed 
straight up against the force of gravity, they could use 

the greatest power and, 
\ I moreover, there was no 



is** I 
■v: vjl 

1^1 



I leverage from their forked 
^■■5par spar->^ polcs agalnst thcm ? It 

/ \ I was impossible to explain 

. / \^v- I to them that if the spar 

\ I was to go upwards, they 

must conform to 
the two diagrams. 



/ 
/ 



/ \ I must conform to one of 



THE HAPPY BANTU 207 



But that a diagram such as the next was bound to end 
in disaster. 



/ \ 

V 
V 

\ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
\ 



Again, practically every article, artifice, and art 
known to the European is absolutely foreign to the 
savage. He cannot possibly understand the use and 
purpose of the simplest thing till he has been taught, 
and not even then in many cases. Often when I am 
reading or writing, a boy comes and moves the lamp 
away; perhaps he thinks it is in my way or he may 
want to put a cup of coffee in its place or use it to 
look for something. He has not the faintest idea that 
the presence of the lamp is essential to the reading or 
writing. 

Practically every night when my boy brings a large 
plate of meat and gravy for my dogs and holds it out 
for inspection, he spills most of the gravy, says, ''Oh ! 
Oh!" and in his desperate attempts to restore the 
level, spills some more. It reminds me of trying to 
work with a very delicate spirit level, and making a 
mistake at first as to which side the bubble has dis- 
appeared. 

The improvidence of the savage is wonderful. He 



2o8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

is an optimist of the highest order. Never does he 
learn by experience. Cheerfully will he eat all his 
remaining food, perhaps sharing it with others, quite 
oblivious of the fact that there are several days' journey 
in front of him and no possibility of obtaining more 
until the journey's end. His sharing his food is not 
real generosity; he sees that he has got enough and to 
spare for the meal, and never thinks of the morrow. 
It is too much trouble to tell the others to go away, so 
he just lets them eat with him. 

On a trek in North Eastern Rhodesia, I watched my 
porters, day after day, cutting the strips of bark with 
which their loads were tied up, to save the trouble of 
unknotting them. This happened nearly every day 
for a month; on arrival in camp they whipped out a 
knife and cut the last strips. Every morning they had 
to sally forth and cut and prepare new strips before we 
could proceed. They never learnt any better, not 
even at the end of the trek; they are probably still 
doing it. ^ 

Affection between husband and wife, parent and off- 
spring, as we know it, is practically non-existent in 
many of the savage peoples, whilst the mother's love 
for the child is much the same as that of an animal. I 
have noticed this to be especially the case farther south, 
where the people are not so intelligent as the Bantu of 
the north. The black mother is an excellent mother 
whilst the child is very young, like most animals. 



THE HAPPY BANTU 209 



Directly the child begins to grow up, she has no further 
use for it, and it has to look after itself, like the off- 
spring of any other animal. 

Where the native shines is in his home, the bush. 
He can generally beat the white man in bushcraft, 
endurance under the trying conditions of a tropical 
climate, and at going through thick country he is often 
wonderful. To show himself at his best, however, 
he must be in his own locality; if he is transplanted, 
even a short distance, he deteriorates. The white 
man, who is a keen hunter, is generally much more in 
touch with the native and in sympathy with him than 
the one who does not care for sport. It is easy to see 
why this should be so. The latter meets the native 
over matters of discipline, taxes, labour, and many 
other things which are of the white man's inven- 
tion and making, and so difficult for the native to 
understand. The hunter meets the savage on com- 
mon grounds and on matters with which the latter 
is, in a primitive way, more conversant than he him- 
self is. 

I have never met the bushman, so cannot speak of 
him, but of all the African savages I have met, I have 
never found anybody as skilled in bushcraft as I had 
been led to expect. In some parts they are very poor, 
in others passable. If they are of any use at all, they 
are of course better than the average white man. It 
could hardly be otherwise, considering they have been 



2IO HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

bred and born for generations in the bush to which a 
white man is a stranger. 

One's first ideas of the savage as a warrior, tracker, 
and bushman are generally founded on boys' tales of 
West Indians. The disillusionment is disappointing 
when it is found that he is neither lynx-eyed, stealthy, 
cunning, quick-witted, or quick of hearing, and that he 
is a wonderfully bad marksman with the poor weapons 
he has. Practically the only things in which he is 
really remarkable are his powers of enduring the rays 
of the fierce sun and the way he has of getting through 
thick country at a rapid pace, especially when escaping 
from anything. 

The African has seldom good long sight; most 
Europeans could beat him at long ranges in open 
country, provided they knew what they were looking 
for. Of course if they had never seen such an animal 
as a giraffe in their lives, the chances would be in favour 
of the native seeing it first. 

At short distances in thick bush the native is gener- 
ally better than the white man, and sometimes much 
better. This is only natural as the white man is abso- 
lutely unused to marching for hours with his range of 
vision confined to a radius of within a yard of his nose, 
with occasionally longer views between vistas of broken- 
down grass or thick bush. 

I find that, as a rule, I can keep level or ahead of the 
native in detecting game so long as I am on the qui 



THE HAPPY BANTU 211 

vive and fresh. That is to say, in the early hours of 
the morning I should probably see game twice, to once 
that any of the natives with me would see anything. 
Directly the sun gets well up, I go off and then the 
native defeats me abjectly. 

The native often comes in for much abuse, owing to 
his vagueness about time and distance. It is very 
annoying to the traveller, but it cannot be helped. He 
has never had a watch, he has no words for times of 
the day except morning, evening, and sometimes noon; 
and evening is the only time really very material to 
him. He generally knows if there is time to reach a 
certain place or village before it gets dark. 

As to distance, it really does not concern him much 
if he takes a few days more or less to reach a place. 
Time is no object to him. The same applies to season. 
He would probably remember if a certain event hap- 
pened during the rains or during the harvest season, 
but practically never how many years ago it was. He 
would be equally vague about the number of months 
that have elapsed since an event. He generally errs 
on the lesser side ; he will say it was two months, when 
it was ten, but never say ten, when it was really' two. 

As a rule, he only has the words '^far" and '^near'^ 
to describe distances; they may be qualified by the 
tone of the voice or by the word "very.'' The usual 
European, on hearing that a place is near, would expect 
to find it within the next few hundred yards. If it 



212 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

was as near as this, the native would not say "near^^ 
or "very near," but he would say it is ''here." 

Places other than villages and streams are often 
grazing grounds, or tracts of country between two rivers 
which bear a name. So the traveller, after being told 
that he has reached the spot for which he has been 
making, may have to walk on another two hours to 
his camping ground, much to his indignation. He will 
keep on saying, ''But you said we had arrived at 
Shokoli." The natives assure him that this is so. 
"Then where is the water to camp at ?" "Just here," 
the natives will reply, and they will trudge on again in 
the sun for another half hour and then he will begin 
to get annoyed. 

A lot can be done with these "nears" and "fars," 
if you know the natives' way of thinking well. If you 
have been walking along for several hours and pass a 
village and ask a native there, how far it is to your 
destination, he will cheerfully tell you that it is "very 
near." 

He is not going to do the march with you in the heat 
of the sun. If he wanted to go there, he would start 
early in the morning and do the journey in two or three 
hours. The chances are then that the place will be 
seven to ten miles distant. If he says, "Oh, very 
near," in a tone of surprise or contempt, it is probably 
only four to six miles. 

Now ask him to come with you and show you the 



THE HAPPY BANTU 213 



way. If it is only a few miles he will readily consent. 
If it is ten miles he will probably demur a bit and then 
admit that it is not so "very near." 

The "near" of a man in the village will probably be a 
"far" or "very far" of one of your porters, who has 
been marching with you. If your porters, after doing 
three or four hours' march, say that it is "near," it 
will probably be only a few miles. 

With a "far" you must realise whether the native 
means far for one day's journey or for more. "Far" 
generally means a long day's trek and a "very far" 
is too long to do in the day. However, if you are set- 
ting out from a place to travel to another, the same 
"far" may be "near," meaning that it is only two 
short days, which the native will call one day as he 
only counts the night's slept en route. In estimate of 
days, the native estimate is, therefore, always one day 
short. 

The SomaH "near" is generally a fairly long one as 
they are accustomed to travel such distances for 
water. The SomaH will say, "Oh, near," in a tone indi- 
cating that it is nothing and point to a tree or bush in 
sight and say, "That tree or bush." At first one 
imagines that the tree or bush indicates the site of the 
place and is inclined to agree that it is fairly near. 
After having passed the bush and marched on some 
twenty or thirty miles, one begins to wonder what the 
tree or bush had to do with it. 



214 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

In open pathless wastes like most of Somaliland, the 
native marches fairly straight on a bearing, till he 
reaches the spot he is making for. The tree or bush 
was to give the direction of the place, and if one takes 
a compass bearing on it, from the point at which it is 
indicated, one will find that the guide keeps fairly true 
to this bearing. 

In the Awemba country, distances are measured by 
the "Mtundu." You are told how many Mtundu it 
is to the place you wish to reach. Now a Mtundu is 
the space between two streams. As the greater part 
of the country is a gentle rolling country covered with 
wood and long grass, it is seldom that any view is ob- 
tained, and if it was, it would be generally impossible 
to locate the position of the next stream. So a Mtundu 
may be one or may be ten miles, and, if anything, you 
are worse off than with " near " and "far." Also the un- 
comforting thought occurs, after crossing a small dip, 
that perhaps this does not count as a Mtundu, which is 
generally the case. The Mtundu must not be taken 
too Hghtly, and it saves disappointment to avoid count- 
ing any but bona fide unquestionable ones. 

There are no professions amongst the happy Bantu, 
except occasionally there are f amihes of blacksmiths and 
hunters. As a rule, however, everybody is supposed 
to be competent to do everything there is to do, a dif- 
ference only being made in the sexes. There are things 
which are considered men's work and others which are 



THE HAPPY BANTU 215 

women's work. There is, however, no village mat 
maker, potter, ornament maker and so on, with rare 
exceptions. That is to say, they are as ignorant of 
specialisation as they are of division of labour. If a 
man wants a mat, he makes it for himself; if he wants 
an earring he makes it likewise. 

This is perhaps the reason why the native, as a rule, 
thinks that no special knowledge is required to perform 
any work the white man has to offer him. If anybody 
else has filled the post, he thinks that he can do so 
equally well. When a native comes to ask for work, 
he, as often as not, says that he will do anything that is 
required of him. He is equally ready to offer himself 
as a carpenter, gardener, transport driver, in fact any- 
thing. If he is asked if he has had any former ex- 
perience of any of these professions, a question which 
will surprise him, he will admit that he has had none, 
but perhaps say that he knows all the white man's 
work well, because he was once cook's boy. 

If a chief was asked to select a man for a job, it would 
never occur to him to choose any one especially quali- 
fied to fill the post. If it was something that would be 
popular, he would choose a friend of his; if the reverse, 
he would choose a small boy or the least likely persoD 
to dare to grumble. 

So if a guide was required for a rather tedious journey, 
he would call up probably a small boy and tell him he 
had got to go. It would never occur to him to find 



2i6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

out first if the boy knew the way or had ever been 
to the locahty before. If some one was required to 
carry a load, he would pounce on the first cripple he 
met. 

I was starting in a steamer to go up the Nile a short 
way, and then intended to land and march. Some 
porters had been requisitioned from a neighbouring 
chief and were to go up with me in the steamer. There 
was some delay about getting off, and just as I thought 
everything was ready, I saw the sergeant, who was 
accompanying me, cross the gangway carrying a man 
in his arms. I imagined that it was a sick man being 
brought for medicine or dressing and was rather 
annoyed that our journey should be delayed. I waited 
patiently for him to be brought up to me on the upper 
deck, but no one came and presently the sergeant 
reported that all was ready to start. 

I asked him who it was that he had carried on board. 
^'Was it not one of master's porters from chief so-and- 
so ? '' he replied. I went down to inspect the man and 
found that he was a paralytic cripple who could not 
walk. He had been selected by his chief as a porter 
for me, and it had never struck the sergeant that a 
man, who must himself be carried, would be rather 
useless as a porter, in fact somewhat of an encum- 
brance on a long journey. 

Division of labour is practically unknown amongst 
the African savage. They have been forced into 



THE HAPPY BANTU 217 

living in communities, probably partly from fear of 
attack, but it is seldom that even two sections of a 
tribe will act together in case of such attack. In 
every-day life every one acts for himself; practically 
nothing is done for the common weal. Even in attack 
or defence, there is no cohesion; each man does as he 
likes, but the knowledge that there are others makes 
him feel bolder. 

It is very difficult, practically impossible, to make 
any large body of savages work in cohesion. I have 
often seen twenty natives make the most futile efforts 
to lift a log of wood off the ground, that two ablebodied 
Englishmen could lift with ease. This is partly because 
they are, as a rule, weak in the arms and partly because 
none of them make any effort. Each one sees that the 
log is too heavy for him to lift by himself and so thinks it 
an impossible feat to be asked to accomplish. If after 
great exertions the log is lifted, they generally make 
the most awful groans and put it down again. Prob- 
ably also each one thinks that with so many others at 
work, it is not necessary for him to be more than a 
spectator. 

I was watching a party of natives, the other day, 
raising one end of a tree which was going to be used as 
a beam of a house. With awful groans they got the 
end about four feet off the ground and then were grad- 
ually letting it down again, inch by inch. I thought it 
must be heavier than it looked, so gave a hoist to the 



2i8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

end, and up it went above my head, leaving all their 
hands groping for it. It could not have required more 
than an eighty-pound or one hundred-pound shove to 
send it up, and there were ten men, each one of whom 
would have thought nothing of picking up a fifty-pound 
load and walking off ten miles with it, quite unable to 
lift it up. Moreover, I cannot devise any way of 
making them put a due proportion of work into a 
united effort, unless one was to treat them as one 
treats a sluggard in a team of oxen. 

Some people would say this was laziness, but it is 
not; the same men would patiently toil all day long at 
lifting up twenty-pound stones to a platform. It is 
sheer inabihty to understand that a few men working 
together can accomplish much more than one singly. 

To continue with the raising of the beam. You get 
one end up, with the end on the top of the wall to 
prevent it slipping back, and you tie a rope to it which 
is given to ten men to hold. You then start hoisting 
the other end and look up to see what the ten men are 
doing. Half of them have let go altogether, one is 
sitting down to pick his toes and is holding the end of 
the rope under his chin, the remaining men are lightly 
holding it with one hand and engaging in conversation. 
Any moment the beam may slip off and come rattling 
down on the heads and toes of those below. They do 
not understand the responsibility of their position; that 
is all. 



THE HAPPY BANTU 219 

The native is not, as a rule, a reliable and trustworthy 
person, either as a witness or as a newsmonger. There 
is generally some one thing true in the native statement. 
It is a nucleus of fact around which a nebula of fiction 
has formed. For instance, a man rushes in and says 
that there is a solitary big male Puku, with enormous 
horns, just behind my tent. On going out, I see nothing, 
but on proceeding a short way, two hornless females are 
pointed out in the distance. The nucleus of fact here 
is Puku; he said Puku and there really were some. 

A Dorobo hunter says suddenly, as we are walking 
along, ''There goes a lion." I look up and see a 
hyaena. The nucleus is, ''There goes." 

A native rushes in perspiring at every pore and says 
that he has this moment seen ten bull elephants passing 
close by. One walks out fifteen miles and is shown the 
five-day-old spoor of one elephant. The nucleus of 
truth in this is, " elephant passing. " 

It seems a point of honour with a native never to 
correct another or to teach him anything. You get 
a new and raw boy. Your old boy will almost imme- 
diately detail him to lay the table whilst he himself 
takes a rest. When you survey the wonderful inge- 
nuity he has used in putting everything in the wrong 
place, you call your old boy and ask him what has 
happened to the table to-day. He will not understand 
you till you carefully point out that everything is in 
the wrong place, and then he will say that the new boy 



220 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

is a very ignorant and worthless youth, forgetting that 
he himself was just as ignorant at one time over these 
matters. 

You then tell him to show the new boy how to lay 
the table, so he calls him, abuses him soundly, and tells 
him to lay it properly. The latter is naturally non- 
plussed, and after making various attempts, is told to 
go away whilst the old boy arranges the table. 

The next few days the old boy will lay the table, 
whilst the new boy sits in the kitchen, then he will be 
deputed to lay the table again, with the same results. 
When you complain again, you will hear that he is so 
lacking in intelligence that it is really impossible to 
teach him anything. 

You leave a village and find elephant spoor close to 
the village. Various people have different views as to 
its age; some say that it is fresh and some old. You 
follow the spoor and make minute observations and at 
last decide that it was of the day before. Then you 
suddenly remember that a native from the village has 
been following you all the while and that he is sure to 
know if elephant came into his fields the night before. 
He has followed you and watched your observations and 
listened to the trackers' conversation as to the age of 
the spoor and never made a remark, and yet he must 
have known for certain from the first. If you had 
followed the old spoor all day long, he would never have 
volunteered a statement. You now ask him whether 



THE HAPPY BANTU 221 

these elephant came back to any other part of the 
fields last night and he says, "No." 

"Did you notice this spoor yesterday?" 

"Yes." 

"When did they come here?" 

"The night before last, early in the morning." 

The African native is very tolerant. He never says 
"You liar," but only grunts assent to the most impos- 
sible story or statement which he must know is an 
absolute fabrication. I have often heard some boy 
laying down the law and talking the most awful bal- 
derdash about game to my two old trackers in Nyasa- 
land, whilst the latter would sit at his feet as earnest 
listeners. They must have known what pure rot he 
was talking, and it must have been apparent to all that 
he had no experience at all, whilst they had been doing 
nothing but hunt for thirty or forty years. Yet neither 
they nor any other listener would ever say, "Shut up, 
you young fool," or words to that effect. 

Perhaps one of a group of porters will make a buzzing 
or some other irritating sound, and continue for hours 
amusing himself by keeping it up after everybody else 
has turned in. Never does anybody say, "chuck it" 
or "stow it." They often get very angry with each 
other over very trivial matters, and then there is nothing 
rude they do not think of saying to each other, but 
such matters as described above do not seem to annoy 
them. 



222 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Practically everywhere I have travelled in tropical 
Africa, I have noticed a very crude but distinct kind of 
courtesy exercised towards the white man. Never is 
one molested by a crowd of urchins in one's camp. 
Now and then, a few small boys come and get in the 
way and gape at the camping arrangements, but if this 
is the case, an older man invariably comes forward and 
drives them away. Although always begging and ask- 
ing for presents, they are in their way very hospitable 
people. 

Once I was crossing the Minikazi, one of the numer- 
ous rivers that flow into the Bangweolo. The chief of 
the village on the opposite bank was engaged in ferry- 
ing his canoe backwards and forwards with my loads. 
After everything had crossed, I was ferried over and 
landed in the village, the poorest looking village I had 
ever set eyes on. The few hovels consisted of some 
poles with a little grass thrown over the top. 

I produced some calico with which to pay the chief 
for his services, but he waived it aside, dashed into the 
village, and threw himself head foremost into one of 
the hovels, and a miserable specimen of a chicken 
hopped out through one of the many holes in the 
dwelling. It was finally caught, and the chief ran 
back and, throwing himself on the ground, presented 
the anaemic fowl to me. The laws of hospitality 
demanded that he should first make a present to the 
stranger before accepting my calico. 



THE HAPPY BANTU 223 



Very useful does the traveller find this almost univer- 
sal law as, on arrival in a new village, he is practically 
certain of a chicken at least. In many places it may 
take him a couple of days' bargaining before he can 
buy another, or he may find it almost impossible to 
obtain anything else, but the first present is always 
forthcoming, however poor the people or however 
much they hate parting with their Hvestock. 

In Uganda there are often telephone stations on the 
line of wire between two administrative posts. Such 
stations are in charge of a Mganda clerk, a title which 
is sometimes a courtesy one, when he can neither 
read nor write. 

I stopped at one of these stations on the march 
once, as I was desirous of sending a message, but it 
was too late in the day to be heard. Owing to the 
sun or some cause or other, messages are only audible 
in the early morning or late evening. The "clerk" 
could talk SwahiH to a certain extent, and so I asked 
him if he could deliver a message for me that evening, 
as I wanted to trek on. He cheerfully assented, but 
as he was certain to forget or mix up the message, I 
thought it would be better to write it down for him. 
I asked if he could read and he said, "Oh, yes." 
"What language can you read ?" 
"Oh, any language." 

"If I write in Swahili, will you be able to read it?" 
"Oh, yes." 



2 24 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

^' Shall I write in Arabic characters or English?" 

"Oh, it is all the same." 

"You can read Swahili?" 

"Yes." 

So I wrote out my message in Swahili, and he looked 
at it and said that it was not the writing he was accus- 
tomed to. I then wrote out the same message in 
Roman characters, but still he could not read it. It 
was not the writing he knew. 

"Well, what sort of writing do you know?" I asked. 

"Oh, just writing." 

" Can you show me the sort ?" 

He opened a box and produced a copy-book. The 
cover was adorned with what looked like endless w^s, 
I opened it at the first page. It was ruled paper, 
and on every line was an endless w or series of w's 
joined to each other, stretching from end to end of 
each line. 

I turned over the pages of this interesting Ms. 
Every page was the same one long succession of never- 
ending w^s. This, he said, was the writing he knew. 

It struck me that perhaps it was some wonderful 
new adaptation of the Morse code; but no, they 
were all as alike as two pins. He had occupied, I 
presume, the long hours between a possible morning 
call and an unlikely evening call in the compilation 
of this document. He firmly believed that he had 
taught himself to write. 



THE HAPPY BANTU 225 

With this example of his optimism, I will leave the 
Happy African. I am afraid that I have painted his 
faults rather than his virtues, but I am none the less 
very fond of him. In spite of his obvious defects, 
I would not exchange him for any other native I know 
of to live with under similar conditions. 



CHAPTER XIV 

CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 

In 1908, whilst elephant hunting with Captain 
Hart in Uganda, we wounded a big bull on the Kafu 
River. We followed it the rest of the day without 
success, although we saw it once ahead from the top 
of an ant-hill. It was then decided that I should go 
after the wounded one next day, whilst Hart went 
off after fresh khohar. 

I settled on a village ahead, in the direction in which 
the elephant had gone, and told my half of the camp 
to proceed there. We followed the spoor, passed this 
village, and later on passed another, so I sent a man 
back to tell them to come on and camp there. I 
followed the spoor till the afternoon, and it was then 
older than when we had started. 

The natives with me tried to persuade me to return, 
as it was obviously useless following any more; but 
I insisted upon going on. The reason for this was that 
I had dreamed about elephant the night before, and 
always regard that as a favourable omen. My dream 
was that I shot some elephants whilst hunting in the 
Aberdare Range, and after the tusks had been cut 

out and brought into camp, they were laid out for my 

226 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 227 

inspection. They lay in pairs of different sizes, but 
what puzzled me was one odd tusk amongst them, 
a long, thin tusk without a fellow. 

We followed on the old spoor till about an hour 
before sundown, when we came on a mud-hole and 
a lot of perfectly fresh spoor. As it was so late there 
was no time to hunt cautiously, so I rushed off down 
the spoor, through thick bush country, till I suddenly 
heard elephant just in front. A moment later, the 
bush ended and gave place to a large open grassy 
space and just below me in a dip were a few elephant. 
As there was no time to lose before sunset, I hurried 
across this open space, when I heard a noise behind and, 
looking round, saw three bulls come out of the bush 
I had left and walk leisurely across to join the others. 

I was just about to move on again to the party 
whom I now saw were having a mud bath, when 
three more bulls came out of the bush, and then others, 
two or three at a time, emerged and marched across in 
stately procession until twenty-five bulls had collected 
at the mud bath. 

The last of the procession was an elephant who at 
first sight appeared to have no tusks. He had his 
left side towards me, so his right tusk was out of sight. 
As he walked and his trunk swung forward, I saw his 
left tusk which was straight, long, and thin. It went 
straight downwards from his jaw, like the tooth of 
a walrus, and being discoloured with earth it was not 



228 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



noticeable against the background of trunk. Wlien 
the trunk swung forward, it could be clearly seen. 

It was the long thin tusk of my dream. However, 
as it was discoloured and malformed, I thought that 
it might be also diseased, so I resolved not to shoot 
it, although it looked the longest tusk present. 

When all had collected at the mud-hole, I got nearer 
and began trying to decide which was the most shoot- 
able tusk, always a difficult task when there are many 
elephant, as one only sees a tusk or two at a time, 
and so one cannot compare them but must remember 
them. In this case, there appeared to be no really 
big male, and at last I decided on one with thick tusks 
and fired. 

At my shot the whole herd turned and galloped 
back in a solid bunch, all jostling each other. It was 
not till they had passed close by that another shot 
offered at the big one. I took a rapid shot at him and 
then jumped on an ant-hill to see better as they dis- 
appeared. Out of all that herd only one offered the 
chance of a last shot and that was the deformed tusker. 
However, now I saw the right tusk. It looked im- 
mensely long and was not, moreover, deformed like the 
other, but had a natural curve, although much less than 
the average tusk. 

I decided to risk it and let drive with my mann- 
licher and over he toppled. It was now sunset and 
we were many hours from camp, so it was impossible 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 229 

to follow up the wounded one, but he was found dead 
afterwards, the only elephant I have ever recovered 
which I have not myself followed till I finished or 
found him. 

We then went to the fallen elephant. My water- 
bottle, field-glasses, etc., were hung on a branch of a 
tree close by, whilst I examined the elephant and cut 
off his tail. I have given a description of him in my 
"Game of East Africa." 

After having taken the measurements I wanted, 
I began to think that it was time to get onto a path 
before night fell, so turned to my tracker, who had 
been waiting for me, and said, "Come along." He 
turned to a couple of local natives who had accom- 
panied us and said, " Come along. The white man 
wants to go." But no one stirred, so I said somewhat 
impatiently, "Come along," again. Still no one came. 

I had been going the whole day and food and shelter 
were still many hours away, if we could reach it that 
night, and, as is often the case when tired and hungry, 
I was very irritable. I cursed the tracker and told 
him to get my water-bottle and glasses at once. He 
turned round and cursed the two local natives and 
told them to get the water-bottle and field-glasses at 
once, but they only uttered murmurs of dissent. 

I could not make out what had suddenly possessed 
everybody, and then I noticed that they were eyeing 
the equipment hung on the tree apprehensively. 



230 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Perhaps it was a sacred tree or one possessed of a devil. 
Anyhow, I could not be bored to wait, so I walked up 
to the tree, and the tracker then caught hold of me to 
pull me back and condescended to explain. 

Whilst I had been measuring the elephant, a snake 
had crawled up and ensconced himself comfortably 
amongst the accoutrements and now remained in 
possession. "Is that all, you watery heart?" I said 
to the tracker, taking his long spear and dislodging the 
intruder. They then took up my belongings and we 
started our weary trek back, getting into camp at 
12.30 A.M. 

In British East Africa I was camped just above 
the Ruero, at a place where there were reeds at the 
edge of the stream. A lion was heard during the night, 
and in the morning some of the men came to tell me 
that there was a fierce beast in the reeds just below 
my camp, and that they were not able to draw water, 
as it growled at them whenever they came near. 
"What sort of a beast is it?" I asked. They were 
not certain but, anyhow, it was very savage, and " if 
it missed being a lion, perhaps it was a leopard." 

A very savage beast, indeed, I thought, if it had not 
been scared away by all the vociferations of my noisy 
porters and if it was prepared to do battle to every- 
body who wanted water. Perhaps it was a lioness 
with cubs. Nasty thick reeds and an unknown animal 
out for blood, — it was with some trepidation that I 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 231 

made my preparations to take on this formidable 
opponent. 

Before I could reach the spot, however, fresh news 
came in. The fierce beast had been seen and found 
to be one of the porters' boys who had run away, owing 
to some grievance, and hidden himself in the reeds, 
growling at everybody who came near. 

In 1906, I was taking a quiet stroll with a friend 
one evening in Ngong forest near Nairobi. He went 
off, I think, after a bushbuck, leaving me in an open 
glade where he was to return for me. I was kneeling 
down drinking at a pool about 5.30 p.m., when I heard 
a slight noise and, looking up, saw something black 
pass along the opposite edge of the clearing and enter 
some bushes. I approached quietly to fifty yards of 
the spot at which it had entered and, by the movement 
of the bushes, saw that it was still there. I waited 
and two extraordinary pigs came out of the bushes 
and walked several yards in the open, and then dis- 
appeared into some other bushes where I heard them 
routing about in piglike fashion. 

I was not able to see them again, nor did I ever see 
them afterwards, although I visited the spot and other 
glades round many times afterwards. However, I 
had a very clear view of them when they passed in the 
open, as they were not more than fifty yards distant, 
and I wrote down my impressions within an hour 
or two. 



232 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

They were considerably smaller than adults of 
either wart hog or bush pig. No tusks were visible 
and they were true pigs in the shape of the head and 
body and not in any way like wart hogs. The body 
was a deep black and the face bright white. The 
chief point noticeable was this dead white of the face. 
I have never heard of any such pig being seen in Africa. 
If they were a new kind, some one else would have 
been sure to have observed them in a spot so near 
Nairobi. The only conjecture I can form about them 
is that they were some domestic pig run wild, but 
then they would have become an easy prey to leopard, 
which abound in the forest ; perhaps they were some 
freak bush pigs. 

I was returning to a camp on the Ndurugu in the 
dusk when I came close up to a kongoni. As lions 
were then roaring from several directions, I thought 
of shooting him for bait. I fired but hit him too 
far back. He stumbled and then went off and I ran 
after him till he came to a tree round which he cantered 
in a stately way like a circus horse, giving me time 
to come up to him. As I could not see my sights well, 
owing to the bad light, I came up quite close to him. 
He must then have described as many as six circles 
round the tree, the last only a few yards distant from 
it. I fired at him as he was making this last circle and 
he immediately left the tree and came straight towards 
me, when a bullet in the chest knocked him over. 




A Young Ostrich 







fxu.;-^ ■'^GV'.^ 



'^:-y^"^6^m' 



^\A 






KOROLI 

Showing the shadeless flats of the Rudolph country. 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 233 

I have known a wart hog when wounded to tear round 
in circles, but in that case it was hit in the head and 
no doubt the brain was affected. 

I was returning to camp in the southern game reserve, 
British East Africa, after having been out sketching, 
and came on a female kongoni who performed similar 
manoeuvres, but in this case it must have been stone 
blind. It was standing almost in my path, apparently 
looking at me, or at any rate in my direction. As we 
got closer and closer I began to wonder how close it 
was going to let me get. 

When I was about fifteen yards from it, it started 
off, perhaps having heard me or my porters. How- 
ever, instead of going straight away it described a 
circle of perhaps twenty-five or thirty yards' radius 
and came back towards where I was standing and 
seemed as if it would run me down. Although it was 
in the game reserve, I did not feel inclined to meet 
with the unromantic end of being run down by a harte- 
beest, and so swung up my rifle. It must have heard 
the movement or got my wind at this moment, as it 
swerved away and then described another circle, re- 
turning to the same spot. It repeated this manoeuvre 
three times and each time it got to within about six 
yards I swung up my rifle and it swerved away. It 
then made more furious efforts than ever to get away 
and galloped faster and in ever-decreasing circles till 
at last it was pirouetting like a vedette's horse when 



234 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

an enemy is sighted. This made it so giddy that it 
staggered about for a little and then resumed larger 
circles, and I left it like that, still galloping round and 
round. I thought at the time what a very soft thing 
it would be for a lion to find. 

Next morning, shortly after dawn, I saw a lioness 
coming from the direction in which I had last seen the 
kongoni; it was so full that its stomach was dragging 
along the ground. I watched her join four others, two 
lion and two lioness. I also saw two hyaena come 
from the same direction. 

On some occasions animals appear to be absolutely 
blind and deaf for the time being. I have generally 
found wart hog fairly difficult to approach in the open 
plains. I was once sketching on the top of a little 
kopje on the Athi plains and whilst so engaged observed 
a wart sow and young one engaged in grubbing on the 
plain below. Having finished my work, I packed up 
my things and started down the side of the hill and 
across the plain towards camp, followed by a porter or 
two carrying my plane table and instruments. Our 
way took us almost directly past the place in which the 
wart hogs were grubbing. They showed no concern 
whatever at our approach, although the plain was per- 
fectly open and there was not a vestige of cover. 

When we got level with them, they were about a 
hundred and fifty yards distant, and they were still 
merrily grubbing away. I took out my camera and 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 235 



thought I would see just how near they would let me 
get. When I got to a hundred yards, I said to myself, 
" It is unlikely that they will let me get any nearer than 
this, so I will just take a snapshot now," which I did. 
I then approached another twenty yards and said the 
same thing to myself again and took another photo. 
I then walked slowly towards them another twenty 
yards and said, "It is quite impossible that they will 
let me get any nearer, so I will just take another 
photo from here," which I did. 

I then walked up to about forty yards and said the 
same thing again and took another photo. After 
that I slowly approached another twenty yards and 
this time I had nothing to say to myself, so I just 
took another photo, and then began approaching 
very gingerly for I was so close I was afraid that they 
might run into me by accident. 

When I was about fifteen yards distant, the young 
one trotted across me and I think got my wind. 
Anyhow it gave the alarm and they both scuttled 
off about twenty yards and then turned round and 
stared at me and finally made off. They were both, 
as far as I could see, in full possession of their senses 
and, according to the custom of animals feeding, they 
had often stopped work to look round for foes and 
had several times looked straight in my direction. 

One day I was just entering on the long causeway by 
which the Fort Hall Road crosses the Thiririka swamp 



236 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

in British East Africa, when I saw four wart hog trot 
down the road on the opposite bank and enter on the 
causeway. I afterwards gathered that they had been 
disturbed by some passing natives and were trotting 
away from them. 

I lay down in the middle of the road and they came 
trotting down the centre, till they were only a few yards 
distant, and I fired at the leading one. The other three 
immediately jumped off the causeway into the swamp, 
but the wounded one rushed straight towards me and 
it was only when I jabbed my rifle muzzle at him to 
keep him off, that he swerved to one side and passed me, 
dropping dead behind me. 

In this case I was a stationary object and it is easy 
to beheve that the animal did not see me until I prodded 
my rifle muzzle at him. In fact I have often had 
animals walk up to within a few yards of me, when I have 
been standing or sitting motionless, even though in full 
view. In the former case, however, I was a moving 
object and, moreover, moving over a perfectly flat, open 
plain, and so a most conspicuous object. 

I have never heard of a case of a man being mauled 
by a wart hog, although I have been told of him ripping 
up the pony of a pigsticker. He does not appear to be 
nearly so plucky as the Indian boar; however, he could 
be just as dangerous if he chose and so I do not care to 
give him the chance. When he gets within a few yards, 
I think it is about time to give him a shot, although I 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 237 



have no proof that his intentions are not of the most 

friendly. 

Once after shooting a wildebeest, I left my men to 
cut up the carcass and went off in search of a shady 
tree. I found one some hundred yards away and sat 
down under it. I had not been there very long, before 
I saw a big wart hog with fine tusks approaching. As 
he came nearer it became more and more evident that 
he also had selected this tree as a suitable place for a 

siesta. 

I should like to be one of those very cold-blooded 
people who could wait, and see how long it would have 
been before he discovered me, and what he would do. 
Would he have lain down beside me or mistaken me for 
a tree and grubbed under me? In any case, there 
would have been little danger as, directly he smelt me, 
he would in all probabihty have turned and made 

off. 

However, his tusks looked so long and gleaming and 
sharp that when he got to twenty yards I could wait no 
longer but fired into his chest. He turned and ran a 
distance I afterwards paced to be within a yard or two 
of two hundred. I found him lying hit through the 
heart with the blood spurting out in a jet, an instance 
of how the heart shot is not always instantaneous. 

A day or two from Nyeri station British East Africa 
there is a hill famous for the number and irritabiUty of 
its rhino. I was sketching there and in between times 



238 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



pottering about its bush-covered slopes. I found it a 
pleasant spot in which to stroll about and observe the 
animal life, as the thick clumps and patches of bush 
gave it all the difficulties and advantages of a bush 
country, as regards the game, whilst the spaces between 
the clumps were, as a rule, so open that there was little 
of that stooping, crawling, and pushing through obstruct- 
ing branches which makes hunting in the thick bush so 
tiring. 

Whilst silently manoeuvring in this country one day, 
I suddenly came face to face with a great pig twice the 
height of the ordinary bush pig. I watched him move 
with head held low, sniffing the ground, till he dis- 
appeared in a clump of bushes and only then reahsed 
that this was the giant forest pig I had been so anxious 
to become acquainted with. I searched round quietly 
and carefully but he did not let me get another glimpse 
at him. 

Whilst on that high, broad back of the Aberdare 
Range called "the Moors," something moving in a 
bottom near me caught my attention. On looking 
through my glasses I saw that it was a cat, but in colour 
it was jet black. I could not get a shot at it, and so 
was left in uncertainty as to what it really was. How- 
ever, I heard later that a black Serval had been obtained 
in that locality, and so I have Httle doubt now that this 
also was a case of melanism in a Serval, possibly even 
the same specimen that was afterwards obtained. 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 239 

The first ostrich egg I ever found was a solitary one, 
lying out in the open in the full glare of the sun's rays. 
I believe a solitary egg like this is often dropped before 
the hen has decided on where to make her nest. 
However, I thought that this was the beginning of 
what was going to be a nest, the first egg of a clutch 
and, therefore, quite fresh. 

I religiously ate that egg in omelets for three days; 
telling myself how lucky I was to be able to get such a 
luxury far from any habitation. It had a most unpleas- 
ant and strong taste, which I put down to being the 
natural flavour, without which no ostrich egg would be 
complete. I now know that that egg was really bad 
and I fear to think how long it had been lying in the 
sun before I found it. 

On another occasion, I found a similar lonely egg 
lying in the open. I decided to take it in to some 
friends who kept an incubator for ostrich eggs. 
Unfortunately, however, it exploded with a loud report 
in my box on the homeward trek. 

Whilst hunting in North Eastern Rhodesia one day, 
I wounded a reedbuck, out of a party of two males and 
some females. I pursued it but could not get within 
shooting distance again and it was as good as lost, as 
once wounded and on the alert, it was not likely to give 
me a chance again of getting near. I sat down and 
watched it crossing a wide ''Dambo" or open grassy 
flat, deciding to let it go off and follow it up an hour or 



240 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

so later in the hopes of surprising it lying down in the 
grass. 

When it reached the other side, perhaps five hundred 
to one thousand yards distant, it joined the party. 
The other buck, a younger one, looked at it and 
evidently noticing that it did not look quite up to the 
mark, thought it a good opportunity to take over the 
females. Accordingly, he set on him furiously, whilst 
the wounded buck stood up to him courageously. 

The females went off leaving the two fighting vi- 
ciously and I, seeing my chance, started running 
towards them. Presently, the young buck got the 
other down on his knees, and they went round and 
round in that position, the wounded one always facing 
his adversary. At last the young one got him prone 
on the ground and commenced goring him viciously. 
So busily engaged were they, that they did not notice 
my approach until I was about a few yards distant. 
I arrived just in time to "save the wounded one's life" 
by driving away his adversary and shooting him 
myself. Even then the lust of battle was so strong 
that the young one was loath to leave his victim, 
and stood watching from thirty or forty yards distant 
for a short time, affording me ample time to have shot 
him also, had I so wished. 

A bushbuck is a plucky httle animal and if badly 
wounded and cornered will often put up quite a good 
fight. Whilst sketching on the Ithanga Hills, I 



CURIOUS HUNTING INCIDENTS 241 

wounded a bushbuck badly and it retired into some 
thick bush. I followed with a native and found it 
unable to get away. For some reason or other, I was 
unwilling to expend another cartridge on it, as I was 
sketching perhaps I had not one; anyhow, we tried to 
collar it and it made vicious little charges first at me 
and then at the native, so that we had to take refuge 
behind trees. 

Very ridiculous we must have looked, each peering 
out in consternation from behind one of two tree trunks 
about six feet apart and the bushbuck between us making 
up his mind whom he would go for next. Finally he de- 
cided on me, and as he rushed at me the native skilfully 
leaned out from his tree and caught him by a hind leg. 
He turned to go for the native and this gave me my 
opportunity and I seized his horns and threw him over. 

On another occasion, I followed up a wounded bush- 
buck and came on him suddenly on the side of a steep 
hill. He sprang up to go off up the hill, and I put a 
shot into his hindquarters, at which he turned round 
and came half-rushing, half-stumbling down the hill 
and tripped me up. In this case the animal hardly 
knew what it was doing, and being badly wounded, 
probably decided that it would be easier to reach cover 
down than up hill. 



R 



CHAPTER XV 

TWO SHORT TREKS AND TWO AFRICAN CHIEFS 

In 1907 I was sketching for the East African Survey. 
I found it necessary to chmb the high peak of Nguzeru, 
or Kinangop, to continue my work. The only people 
who know these mountains are a few Kikuyu, who make 
a profession of hunting for honey and bringing it for 
sale or exchange to the villages on the eastern side. 

I was fortunate in coming across two of these in the 
forest, whilst camped under the western side, and 
obtaining their services as guides. They knew the 
lower slopes well but their knowledge did not extend 
higher than the forest level, perhaps ten thousand feet, 
as their work did not take them to the bare upper 
slopes. A native is not, as a rule, inquisitive or 
enterprising; he is only driven by necessity and only 
does those things he is forced to do by circumstances, 
or notices those things that come into direct contact 
with him. 

As an example of what I mean, I have been unable 
to hear of any native, amongst the crowded villages at 
the foot of Mount Kenya, who has been any appreciable 
distance up the mountain. There is a range of moun- 
tains near Nimule only ^ve to six thousand feet high. 

242 



TWO SHORT TREKS 243 

There are many people living close to the mountain on 
one side, but I have not yet been able to find 
one who has been to the top, or knows of any one 
who has. Of all the many thousands of insects which 
abound in tropical Africa, perhaps only a dozen or less 
have native names in any one part. These will be 
found to be flies that bite the native or his cattle or 
sting him or provide him with honey. With the 
others, he has no concern. 

My guides showed me an elephant path, called the 
Njira Wanjohi, which crossed a high pass and led to the 
villages on the other side of the hill. It was used by the 
honey hunters of Wanjohi to reach this side of the hill. 

As we walked along the narrow, winding path, often 
obstructed by fallen bamboos, it struck me how 
extremely awkward it would be suddenly to round a 
corner and come face to face with the leader of a herd 
of elephants coming in the opposite direction. For 
elephant move very silently, and in this part of the 
country, they are often very bad-tempered. It would 
be a matter of great difficulty to get out of the path and 
break into the thick undergrowth on either side. 

Whilst thinking this, we heard a slight noise in front 
of us and the guide, who was walking just in front of me, 
stopped dead. In another moment a man appeared 
round a turn of the path a few yards distant, caught 
sight of us, and also stopped dead. He and the guide 
looked at one another for a few moments, like two dogs 



244 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

who are not quite certain if the other is going to fight 
or not, and then one said something, the other 
answered, and they went forward to meet one another. 
Behind this man came a string of men carrying the 
hollow logs used as beehives. It was the end of March 
and a new honey season was about to commence, so 
they were preparing for it by placing new hives ready. 

We reached a little col still to the west of the range, 
at the source of a stream called the Turasha, and found a 
spot in which the imdergrowth was low, and so cleared a 
place in which to camp. The ground was covered with 
rotting vegetation and offered little hold to the tent 
pegs. At the base of a steep slope was a spring, and a 
httle pool of clear water, but just as I was stooping to 
drink from it, I saw that it was full of leeches. 

Just after pitching camp, a bitter gale got up, and so 
I put on all the clothes I could find, shirts, pajamas, 
coats, indiscriminately one over the other, till I was so 
bulky that I could get on nothing more and then went 
to bed. However, the wind increased and I spent the 
greater part of the night hammering the pegs into new 
places as they became uprooted. 

Next day I sent the porters on by the Njira Wanjohi 
to search for a sheltered spot, a little over the pass on the 
eastern side, in which to camp, whilst I climbed to the 
top of the peak to take observations. The last two 
thousand feet were bare, that is to say, there were 
patches of bare rock, coarse grass in isolated tufts, a 



TWO SHORT TREKS 245 

giant sort of groundsel, and a few other mountain plants, 
but no thick or high vegetation. 

At one place I found a long, flat ridge of rock littered 
with bones, evidently a spot to which vultures brought 
their prey for consumption, and from which they enjoyed 
the magnificent panorama of hills, forests, and beyond 
that plains spreading out below them. Elephant 
tracks led up to within a few hundred feet of the top, 
whilst a rhino track reached practically the summit, 
passing under the block of rock which formed the 
actual highest part. 

From the distance, the mountain seemed to have a 
cairn perched on the summit. This in reality was a 
great block of rock about the size of a small house. 
From my camp I had been able to see with glasses that 
this rock was surmounted by a beacon or some object 
which looked like the basket or brush pole which I 
believe is sometimes used for trigonometrical work in 
West Africa. This puzzled me, as I had never heard of 
any survey party visiting the top; in fact I knew that no 
government survey had been there, as I had been given 
the points from which the top had been fixed. 

When I got under the last block of rock, I saw that it 
consisted of a sort of black iron arrangement with flat 
hexagonal sides, shaped rather like a large stable 
lantern. This was on the top of a pole, and guyed down 
to the rock with four bars of iron. 

After going round the mass of rock, we found a place 



246 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

to climb up at the other end. On reaching the top of 
this end of the block, we were divided from the mass 
on which the beacon was, the actual highest part, by a 
neck of rock. This was perhaps wide enough to allow 
of the passage of a dog-cart, but the wind was so terrific 
that I felt compelled to crawl over this on hands and 
knees, although I have a very good head for heights. 
Two of the porters with me crawled across flat on 
their stomachs, but the other two refused to face it 
at all. 

I then examined the beacon; the rock had been 
bored and the pole and the attachments for the guys 
had been cemented into it. On one side of the lantern- 
shaped iron box was a door opening with a catch. I 
opened this door wondering what it could contain, — the 
record of a former climber, a reward for the next climber, 
the will of an eccentric millionnaire, survey instruments 
ready to hand, almost every conceivable idea flitted 
across my mind except the right one. 

I do not think that I have ever felt such a shock of 
surprise in my life. If ten rattlesnakes had come 
rushing out of the door, I should have been prepared to 
meet them, but what I actually saw was a small 
shrine and a picture of the Virgin Mary. 

Remember I had never heard of anybody else having 
been to this summit, and if one had, the natural sup- 
position was that it was an exploring or mountaineering 
party or a surveyor in the execution of his work. 



TWO SHORT TREKS 247 

Whoever else in the world would take the trouble to 
camp up in these cold heights and the fatigue of cHmb- 
ing this summit ? 

I afterwards found that it was the work of a mission 
in the Kikuyu country. They had very kindly left 
some bits of dry bamboo lying about ; perhaps these had 
been used as ladders to mount the rock. With these my 
men made a fire in a crevice of rock at which to warm 
their hands. 

I had to build a cairn of stones around each leg of the 
theodolite and plane table to keep them down. The 
wind was so violent that it blew my alidade off the 
table and the cold so great that I could only draw 
about one line, and then had to warm my hands at the 
fire before being able to draw another. 

Mist was driving across the hill and objects only 
appeared at intervals, so work was extremely difficult. 
At noon the clouds closed down and we had to stop 
work and make for our new camp, which we found was 
in a more sheltered position. Also, it was on open grass 
with a firm hold for pegs and my porters had collected 
heaps of firewood. 

Next day I felt like shirking the climb, the cold, and 
the awful wind. As so often happens, when one is 
prepared to dislike something very much, it turns out 
much better than expected. This day after I had 
reached the top, the sun came out, and the day proved 
most exceptional for the time of year. I could see all 



248 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the points I wanted, even the summit of Kenya. 
Although it was blowing about four hurricanes, it was 
not so bitter as the day before and I completed my 
work. 

The following day we went on down the side of the 
mountain through the bamboo forest, and the day 
after came to the village of Karori, a big Kikuyu chief. 
The country just about this village was delightful; it 
was at the edge of the forest and consisted of open 
spaces covered with short grass and large, shady trees. 
A little farther east the usual treeless country of the 
Kikuyu started, consisting of steep red hills and masses 
of cultivation. 

Korori was one of the most real chiefs I have ever 
met. In his village he wears nothing but a cloak of 
hyrax skins trimmed with white beads. This he wore 
hanging from the shoulder usually, but when cold he 
gathered it round his naked body. The skin of the 
hyrax is looked on as a chief's perquisite in these parts 
and no one else is allowed to wear it. 

He had three tin-roofed buildings in his village and 
there was a Swahili mason then engaged on the last. 

The latter had been some time in the village and 
confided his impressions to my head man. He said that 
Korori held all his Kikuyu absolutely under his thumb, 
that he supplied all the arrow-heads used by the Dorobo 
hunters and that the tusks of every elephant killed or 
found dead on the Aberdares were brought in to him. 



TWO SHORT TREKS 249 

He also has a sugar-cane press out of which he derives 
considerable profit. 

On my arrival he presented me with a very fat sheep 
for myself and a very lean one for my porters . As we had 
nearly come to an end of our rations, I was anxious to 
buy some more for my men. I told Korori and he 
immediately produced a bag of beans and refused to 
accept any payment for it. After a long discussion 
with him, he said that he could not accept any payment 
for anything that was to go into my own stomach, and 
if the beans were not enough for the men, he would 
make arrangements next day for me to buy the food I 
wanted from his people. He then brought a gourd of 
honey wine for me. 

It is seldom that one can converse with any real 
interest with a native, but I found Korori most different 
to the usual savage. He is half-Dorobo and half- 
Kikuyu. He said that the white men and the Dorobo 
were all one at one time, and then the Dorobo became 
black. He was very insistent on this, and that the 
Kikuyu and the Masai and all other peoples were of 
different origin, but that the white man and the Dorobo 
were the same and both hved by hunting. I told him 
that this was in a way true, our ancestors were long ago 
Dorobo in that they lived by hunting. I then told 
him whatever I could think about prehistoric and cave 
men, and how at first they had not invented a way of 
making iron arrow-heads and so had to use stones. 



250 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Korori was most interested, in that it proved his pet 
theory. He then told me about the Kikuyu Wan- 
dorobo, and their ways of hunting and of the times 
when he was young and himself hunted. 

On the next day he showed me over his house and 
stores, explained how the Wandorobo arrows were 
made, and in the afternoon came and drank coffee with 
me and smoked a cigar just as if he had done it all his 
life. I promised to send him a box of cheap cigars 
from Fort Hall. 

The Swahili mason exchanged confidences with the 
head man again in the evening and said that Korori is a 
very big and rich man and has boxes of rupees in his 
house. He is also very generous and will frequently give 
twenty or thirty rupees to a strange native passing his 
village. 

Whilst sitting talking to me, Korori pointed to a 
horse-fly busily biting his bare knee. "If I were a 
woman," he said, "I would drive it away, but being a 
man I just bear it." I noticed, however, that for 
some time afterwards he was furtively scratching his 
knee where it had bitten him. 

After a pleasant stay of two days, sketching round his 
village, I paid off my two guides and said good-bye 
to Korori. He besought me to ask for anything I 
wanted and it was only with great difficulty that I 
escaped without having to take a captive vulture he 
had got. He supplied me with men as guides and to 



TWO SHORT TREKS 251 

collect porters' food en route, and I set off for Fort Hall. 
The trek up and down a succession of steep, red hills 
covered with cultivation is so monotonous and dull 
that I will not describe it. 

In 1908 I was at Lamu, and wishing to see something 
of the mainland, decided to make a little trek, although 
the rains were on, and it was a most unfavourable time, 
as the low country was flooded. I left Lamu with two 
other Europeans for Mkunumbi on a mashua, or small 
open dhow. There was no wind, so progress was very 
slow and it rained incessantly the whole time. We 
arrived at our destination at sunset, having been wet 
through since 8 a.m. The route was by winding 
channels through the mangrove swamps. 

Next day, leaving the other two, I trekked up to Witu; 
it was raining the whole time excepting about the last 
hour. At Witu the Sultan made me most comfortable. 
He has a two-storied, tin-roofed house which I believe 
was formerly inhabited by the commissioner after Witu 
was taken over. I mention this because it is most 
unusual to find a European- or Arab-built house in an 
inland village. As a rule, even the biggest chief lives 
in a mud hut like anybody else, although perhaps a 
little larger than the average. 

The Sultan of Witu is an old soldier, and like Korori 
a most enlightened man. In his case, however, he 
has seen much of Europeans and their ways, whilst 



252 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Korori seems to have developed his advanced ideas by 
himself. 

He owns a large cocoanut plantation and is very well 
to do, chiefly on the proceeds, and he keeps his people 
well in hand. The population round Witu is very 
mixed. It consists for the most part of Watoro or 
runaway slaves. These people seem to have now 
formed a sort of type of their own, though originally 
they must have been drawn from the most varied ele- 
ments, Yaos, Atonga, Makoa, Giriyama, Pakomo, and 
many others. These slaves escaped from their masters 
at the coast or island towns, prior to our occupation, 
and made colonies in the bush. Various expeditions were 
sent against them, but they soon grew strong enough to 
hold their own. There are also some Galla living in 
the neighbourhood. 

Witu was the last stronghold of the Sultans of Pate. 
When that place declined, and finally became a de- 
pendency of Zanzibar, the throne was removed to 
Witu, and there the last Sultans of the line managed 
to retain their independence, till the place was taken 
by us, as a result of the murder of some German 
traders. 

From Witu I proceeded to Kao on the Tana River. 
After some hours of wading through swamps, we reached 
a backwater. Here I was told to fire a shot, and after 
about half an hour's delay a canoe appeared and took 
me up a winding creek to the town of Kao, from which 



TWO SHORT TREKS 253 

place other canoes were despatched to fetch the rest of 
my loads. 

On the way to Kao we passed, at one place, myriads of 
little perch-like fish, which had got stranded in shallow 
water and pools, whilst women were busy collecting 
piles of them and carrying them off wrapped in their 
cotton robes. 

Kao appeared, at this time of year, to be a low bank 
of mud, on which were situated about forty or more 
huts. On one side it was bounded by the Tana and on 
the other three by creeks and swamps. A good many 
cocoanut trees are grown round the place, but I am 
told that they do not prosper. 

From Kao we made our way up the Tana by canoe. 
The canoe was propelled by two Wapokomo, one 
paddling in the stern, and the other standing in the 
bow with a long forked pole, with which he occasionally 
poled at the bottom of the river, but more often prodded 
the river-side vegetation and pushed against that. 
The paddler kept the canoe close in to the bank or, 
when the current was strong, paddled across to the 
other bank where the current was weaker. 

To the poler, nothing seemed to come amiss; now he 
would prod at a mangrove root, now an overhanging 
branch, at another time he would collect a bunch of 
reeds with his fork and push against these. 

The scenery was magnificent, as it generally is on 
rivers, but the weather was abominable and I was very 



254 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

glad to reach Mbelazoni, where I landed. From this 
place the old course of the Tana flows out at right an- 
gles to the main stream and joins the sea some thirty 
miles south of the present mouth. The river I have 
been calling the Tana so far is really the old Ozi River. 
The Tana was turned into it by cutting the Mbela- 
zoni canal, a feat that was performed by Pakomo 
slave labour, by the command of one of the old Witu 
Sultans. 

The old course of the river is silted up and it is only 
now when it is very high that any of its water reaches 
the sea by that channel. About and below Mbelazoni 
there are stretches of rice fields on the banks. 

From this place I went at right angles to the present 
course of the river and reached the old mouth amongst 
sand-hills on the seashore, at a village belonging to one 
Hamed Igao. The change from the sodden, flooded 
country about the Tana to the dry sand-hills of the 
seashore, in the course of a few miles, was remarkable 
and exhilarating. 

I had hoped to get news of elephant here, but it ap- 
peared that they had left the locality and, according 
to the local authorities, would not return till the Mkoma 
palms ripened. This coast ivory is very poor, but I 
had never shot one of these elephant or met them under 
these conditions, and was anxious to see what the shoot- 
ing was like. The country they inhabit when there 
is thick thorn and bush not far from the shore. 



TWO SHORT TREKS 255 

I then returned to Mbelazoni and canoed back to 
Kao. The soil on the banks of the lower Tana is very 
rich but the climate is unhealthy. Cocoanuts are 
grown fairly plentifully, but for some reason or other, 
perhaps the richness of the soil, do not thrive as they 
do in the sand and coral rag soil of Lamu. From Kao 
to Witu the ground had become more flooded, and we 
had to wade waist deep for part of the way. 

At Witu I had tea with the Sultan. I expected to be 
given tea in a tin mug but to my surprise china cups 
were set out, and then a cosey tea basket, of the picnic 
type, was brought up from down-stairs by a naked 
urchin, and on being opened a china teapot came forth. 
The urchin was then set to work to roll some cigarettes, 
the Sultan telling me that he had a special way of roll- 
ing, in which a screw of paper was left at the end, by 
which to light them. 

After calling on a settler, I proceeded on my return 
journey to Mkunumbi. The Sultan was very aggrieved 
that I would not stop longer, and said that next time 
I came it must be to see and stop with him, not to rush 
through each time. After wading practically the whole 
way and getting drenched as usual, I reached Mkunumbi 
again, and thence returned to Lamu. 



CHAPTER XVI 

ODD NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUHDE 

Often when hunting in Nyasaland, North Eastern 
Rhodesia, and other tropical parts of Africa, I have 
thought that it would be too delightful if it were not 
for one thing, and that is the sun. The sun, with its 
concomitants of dryness, parched country, thirst, and 
the sick feeling it gives you after walking for long, just 
spoils everything. 

If one wanted it to be perfect, one would also abolish 
the tall grass and the noxious insects and then it would 
be so delightful that one would never want to leave it. 
If the climate could be further altered to suit one's con- 
venience, one would arrange not to have six months of 
parching dryness, and six months of slushy wetness, 
but only small rains, at intervals often enough to keep 
the country fresh and green. 

The long grass which gives you a cold shower bath 
in the morning, and shuts in the heat during the middle 
of the day, which flicks you in the face, pokes you in the 
eye, conceals the path, trips you up and covers you, at 
certain seasons, with sharp, prickly seeds, is perhaps the 
most annoying factor in African travel. There is the 
seed which I call the thread and needle grass; it con- 

256 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 257 

sists of a sharp head and long tail like a tadpole and it 
sews itself in and out of your shirt. There are barbed 
seeds, hooked seeds, sticky seeds, all sorts of seeds, which 
get down your neck, into your clothes, under your 
putties everywhere. 

Apart from these drawbacks, however, wandering in 
the bush presents many charms. There are large 
stretches of wild, uninhabited country, full of game, to 
be explored, all sorts of waterholes, nullahs, nooks, and 
crannies to be ferreted out and investigated. 

When I came to the highlands of East Africa, I found 
the country I had been trying to manufacture. The 
most perfect climate, cool and invigorating, no long 
grass, few noxious insects, no prolonged drought or 
swampy wet season, and plenty of game. The only 
fault I had to find with it was that it was too crowded 
with sportsmen. One can convert one's hunting into a 
real picnic in the highlands of East Africa, and it is a 
country which quite spoils one for a return to the 
feverish, hot, and unhealthy parts. It has one other 
drawback, however, besides its crowded state, and that 
is that it is a poor coimtry for elephant. 

Unfortunately, I have never in my life yet had time 
to have a leisurely, enjoyable trek with nothing to do 
but wander about and observe game; I have always 
been in a rush, and my treks are generally forced. 
Perhaps it is largely my own fault in trying to get too 
much done in the time available. If I have ten days' 



2s8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

leave, I find the place I wish to get to is exactly five 
days there and five days back. If I have three months' 
leave it is six weeks there and six weeks back. At 
other times, when trekking, I have had survey or ad- 
ministrative work to do. 

In spite of these drawbacks, from the sportsman's 
point of view, I have managed to spend many delight- 
ful times rambling about forest or bush. I can im- 
agine no more deligthful way of spending a holiday, to 
one interested in animal life, than a comfortable and 
leisurely safari through East Africa. There one can 
find almost any climate one may desire, the extremes of 
heat and cold, damp and dryness, healthiness and un- 
heal thiness, and anything intermediate between them. 
About the only kind of climate East Africa does not 
produce is that raw, rheumatic, damp weather for which 
our own island is so justly famed. The only thing 
against it, as I have said before, is that all the healthier 
parts are getting rapidly filled up with settlers and 
sportsmen and are becoming fuller every moment. 

To enjoy a trek to its fullest, one must take an in- 
terest in small things as well as big. One cannot be 
always shooting big game; either one has shot enough 
of the species to hand, has enough meat in camp, or 
wants to find some less strenuous employment for an 
off day. Then if one takes an interest in plants, smaller 
mammals, insects, or any other form of life, one has 
them ready close at hand to study, many of them at 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 259 

one's very door, whilst the larger game must be sought 
for, sometimes, far away. 

For those who wish to study the plain animals and 
not to shoot, I should imagine that a better place 
could not be found than the upper and middle pools of 
the Athi River. During the dryest part of the weather, 
these places contain the only water for many miles 
round, and the game come in swarms to drink. Noth- 
ing would be easier than to arrange a series of screens, 
or to dig a pit screened by brushwood, or to arrange a 
shelter in one of the thorn trees and watch and photo 
the game from there. As these pools are in the game 
reserve, special sanction would have to be obtained and 
the naturahst would probably have to prove that he 
was a bona fide naturalist, and not a sportsman in 
disguise. 

In the upper pools there is practically only one pool 
of very dirty and bitter water during the dry weather. 
I visited these pools in February with Captain 
Cox, R.E., for the purpose of erecting a beacon for 
the survey in the neighbourhood. Before starting 
from our camp on the lower Athi, Cox shot a harte- 
beest, so that we should have a supply of meat when in 
the reserve. On arriving in the reserve, we found that 
our boys had left the kongoni at our camp, and the 
only fresh meat in the larder was a guinea fowl. 

The boys were well cursed, with the result that bits 
of that wonderful bird appeared in different guises. 



26o HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



strongly supported by potato and onions, sausages, eggs, 
and other makeweights, on three consecutive days. 

We saw masses of game everywhere and it struck us 
that the heads were much finer than anything we had 
seen on the other side of the line. The safari put up 
two lions at the middle pools. We found the water 
here bitter, but obtained fresher out of a tributary to 
the Athi. 

We then went on to the upper pools and found only 
one very discoloured and very bitter pool of water. 
Fortunately there had been a little shower of rain and 
going several miles farther up-stream we found some 
bare rocks on which a few shallow pools of water had 
formed. These just sufficed for us, but in another 
couple of days would have been dried up. 

The African native generally walks fairly slowly, and 
when out sketching, if one goes at all fast, the men with 
the plane table and instruments are generally left a 
long way behind. Next day, as we were looking for a 
point, we found the men as usual far behind. Whilst 
commenting on this, they commenced running for all 
they were worth. Astonished at this unwonted zeal, 
we waited to witness the phenomenon and soon saw the 
reason; — a couple of rhino were trotting behind them. 

They came up breathless but the rhino had now al- 
tered their course a little, and trotted past. They were 
not really chasing the men, as the latter tried to make 
out, but just happened to be trotting in that direction. 




'luir'l 




.,«««Mg 




■^G,-^ 



fflWi8BK^-^-.:Lllgg«fe- 



Waller's Gazelle 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 261 

Whilst building a beacon under the south of Kenya 
there was an absolute epidemic of red-legged partridge 
round my camp. I do not know if they are always 
there in such numbers, or if it was an unusual occur- 
rence. My porters set snares for them with hair nooses 
attached to withies, bent down like a bow and releasing 
with a catch. 

A few grains of food were arranged one side of the 
noose. The bird put its head through to get the grain, 
and at the same time trod on a twig which let fly the 
bow. It was then borne up into the air. 

During a day or two camped there, my men must 
have caught quite a hundred, whilst Kikuyu boys 
brought in others to sell at two for an anna. 

At this place the natives told me of an animal, some- 
thing like a Bongo from all accounts, but differently 
striped, which was said to live in the forest. I never 
obtained any more information about it, and in other 
places along the foot of the mountain the natives said 
that they knew nothing about such an animal. The 
native who was my informant described the horns as 
being twisted. 

Whilst sketching on the top of a rocky hill near the 
junction of the Tana and Thika, I had a proof of the 
distance to which one can hear the low, grunting sound 
of the leopard. I was about two or three miles from 
my camp and I heard these grunts proceeding from that 
direction. I estimated that the leopard must be be- 



262 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

tween me and the camp. However, when I returned 
and asked the men there from which direction the 
sounds had come, they were all agreed that they had 
proceeded from the other side of camp and that they 
were fairly distant. That is to say, I had heard the 
grunting clearly, although it must have been four 
miles distant, or perhaps more. 

Although about as interesting to shoot as would be 
a sheep, the impala to my mind is the most graceful 
and prettiest of African game. It is generally found 
in wooded country on the banks of a big river or stream. 
Even in the countries of thicker vegetation, such wooded 
spots are free from long grass, and nothing could be 
more charming and picturesque than to see a herd of 
these antelope moving through the trees, with the lights 
and shades playing on their glossy coats. 

They generally move on and on just in front of the 
sportsman and are usually very tame, never going far 
unless they have been much molested, but always just 
out of good sight, often baffling his effort to locate a 
good head from amongst their number. Their grace- 
fully curved horns, greyhound-like proportions, and 
leaping movements are very pleasing to behold. 

Their surroundings so recall an English park or wood, 
that I have often pictured to myself what an ornament 
they would be on any private land. They feed to a 
certain extent on pods and shoots, so perhaps it would 
be difficult to acclimatise them to new food, but it would 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 263 

be a very simple matter to round up a herd of these 
animals. If a zariba was built like a keddeh, on a small 
scale, it would be easy to drive a herd in. Once there, 
if fed and watered regularly, they would get as tame 
as some animals that I have seen who would take salt 
out of my hand. 

The honey guide always appears to me such an in- 
teresting little bird. He is the only wild animal I can 
think of who has established an understanding with 
man, and in his case it seems to be a complete under- 
standing, and with a man, too, who is noted for his want 
of sympathy with animals. 

The arrangement between honey guide and human 
beings is based on mutual wants, and is evidently to 
the advantage of both. It is difficult, however, to un- 
derstand how such an understanding ever commenced, 
unless we credit the bird in the first case with a consid- 
erable degree of intelligence. One can imagine the bird 
accidentally coming across honey hunters at work on 
a bees' nest, or just leaving a bees' nest, and learning 
that they were useful people to watch. Then one can 
imagine him after a time learning to follow about such 
a party and profit by their leavings. 

The next step, however, is a long one. The bird knew 
that it was acquainted with many bees' nests which it 
was impossible for it to get at. It must have reasoned 
that the human beings were not acquainted with these 
nests, in fact that it was their business to look for and 



264 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

find nests, and that instead of being very superior 
beings they were, in this respect at any rate, rather 
stupid. The thought must have occurred to one bird 
at least that it might show these bUnd human 
beings the position of such nests to its own personal 
advantage. 

To account for the bird in the first place conceiving 
this idea, we must credit it with an amount of intelli- 
gence and original reasoning powers quite apart from 
what is generally referred to as instinct, which very few 
would be prepared to admit is possible. I think that 
we are so imbued with our own importance and pre- 
dominance in the scheme of life that we are apt to take 
too low a view of the original intelligence, apart from 
instinct, of some other forms of life. 

Also the way in which we have got the whole of the 
animal kingdom ticketed and labelled in ascending order 
from the protoplasm to the highest form, man, is liable to 
give us, consciously or unconsciously, a false view of 
the relative intelligence of different orders. The lower 
in the scale, the lower the form and the lower the intel- 
ligence is a sort of conviction which we unconsciously 
adopt. If we look on animal life as a tree, it is easy to 
believe that any of the last branches may produce as 
good fruit as any other. Unfortunately, we imbibe 
knowledge from books and, by their nature, such in- 
formation has to be propounded in two dimensions, 
and the tree business cannot go into two dimensions. 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 265 

We have to have our knowledge of plants and animals 
served up with a beginning and an end, that is to say, 
in tables and lists and one subject after another. 

Also, when we compare man's intelligence with that 
of the animal, we perhaps turn too much to those ani- 
mals we know best and can understand, the dog, the 
horse, and the cow, and perhaps the last two are amongst 
the most foolish things in creation. 

If we want to look for the next to man in intelligence, 
perhaps we should turn to the ant first, then to some 
kinds of birds, and then to the bee. Birds are a highly 
intelligent order ; if one wants a good example, look at 
the Indian crow. With this bird the difficulty is not 
to believe that it has reasoning powers of a fairly high 
order, but it would be extremely difficult to convince 
oneself that some of its actions were caused by instinct. 
Such actions are purely extemporised for the occasion. 

An Indian crow will make an absolute fool of a dog. 
One will attract his attention and make him rush at it 
to the full length of his chain and bark senselessly, 
whilst a second will hop quietly round behind him and 
help himself out of his platter. 

So in the case of the honey guide, it is possible to 
believe that its reasoning powers led it in the first in- 
stance to the idea of showing man the bees' nests of 
which it knew. 

Having got so far, the next step is more difficult to 
follow. So far the black man, for I suppose that it was 



266 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

a black man, intensely unobservant of anything that he 
cannot eat or drink, or that does not sting or bite him 
or otherwise minister to his comfort or discomfort, prob- 
ably never noticed the quiet, little inconspicuous bird 
who has followed him from tree to tree, and sat watch- 
ing him from afar till he had finished his work and 
gone his way. How then did he first become aware that 
the bird's twittering was an invitation to follow and how 
did he first realise what the bird wanted ? I can imag- 
ine the scene; the bird, at first a little nervous, and then 
growing bolder, flying over the honey hunter's head. 
At last one would say, ''A bird." The other after 
considerable cogitation would reply, "It is crying." 
Then with the air of having completely solved all the 
problems of the universe, they would proceed on their 
way. 

Perhaps the bird continued time after time till he 
struck some one who was as great a genius for a black 
man as it was for a bird and that this one foUowed him 
to see what he wanted. However, even then it would 
not be apparent what the bird wanted, and after a short 
time the man might well have thought that he was being 
made a fool of. 

I imagined when I heard of the honey bird that it flew 
from tree to tree in a straight line and finally sat just 
over the nest, chirping loudly. When I first came across 
it, and watched its zigzag, apparently aimless, flight 
from tree to tree and back again, and when on several 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 267 

occasions we were absolutely unable to find any bees' 
nests, I began to be sceptical about the honey guide's 
powers. 

I argued that if you take any party of natives con- 
vinced of the bird's efficacy, and if when the bird ap- 
pears, they all turn to looking for a bees' nest, encour- 
aged by the bird's twitterings, the chances are that in 
many cases they will be rewarded by finding one. How- 
ever, I have now no doubt whatever that the bird is 
actually a honey guide, although I suspect in it a vein 
of humour, or comradeship, which induces it sometimes 
to make a fool of one. '^I have found honey often 
enough for you," I can imagine it saying, ''now come 
along and find some for me. Twit, twit, twit. Would 
you like to go this way ? or perhaps this is better ? " 

Apart from this, I have found honey so often by the 
help of the honey guide, and on many occasions so near 
where it first attracted our attention, that the matter 
is to my mind a certainty. You must not, however, 
expect him to go and sit over the nest; he leaves 
something to your own powers of observation and 
intelligence. 

This has been my experience on perhaps a score of 
occasions. One is walking through the bush, perhaps 
returning from a shoot, when one hears twit, twit, twit, 
twit, and the little bird flies past and off to one side. One 
follows looking at all the big trees and ant-hills about, 
but hears the bird anxiously calling from ahead. One 



268 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

goes on a little, still looking carefully at every likely 
place, when one hears twit, tmt, twit, from one side 
again. One goes there and hears the sound in front 
again and then d>ing down. Perhaps one goes on to 
this place but the bird does not encourage one any more, 
and one does not see or hear it. Looking carefully all 
round you find a nest, if you are clever. Perhaps you 
do not find a nest and perhaps you wander far away; 
in any case after you have been looking some time, the 
bird starts again and takes you off. I suppose it has 
assumed that either you cannot find this nest or that 
for some reason or other you do not want it, and it is 
taking you to another. 

Till I did some hunting with some professional honey 
hunters, I was unaware what a blind fool I was in the 
matter of bees' nests, and I should not be surprised if 
I exasperated my first honey guides beyond measure. 
''There you are, can't you see it just in front of your 
nose ? Don't you see the direction in which the bees 
are flying ? Why don't you put your ear to the trunk ? " 
must have been the thoughts that flitted through his 
little head. 

I wrote an article to the Field which appeared in the 
issue of September 14, 1907, on the subject of the honey 
guide. In this I mentioned a case of five nests being 
found in two days, all close to the spot where the honey 
guide had attracted our attention, and this when we 
were trekking along a caravan route and were not 



NOTES ON GAME AND THE HONEY GUIDE 269 

anxious to stop our march. On one of these occasions 
we were not going to pay any attention to the bird, but 
it was so insistent, in fact it absolutely buttonholed us, 
that I had to follow it. I determined not to go far, but 
we found the nest within a stone's throw of the road. 

The chances are that the habit of the honey guide 
is acquired from others, and is not what we call an 
^^ instinct.'' Perhaps it is carried on from one bird 
seeing another, or perhaps it has by now been done 
so often that it has developed into an instinct, although 
not so long ago it must have been acquired by reasoning 
powers. 

My reasons for thinking the former are: first, that 
there appears to be a great deal of difference between 
individual birds; some seem very good guides, and 
some very erratic. Secondly, they cannot be depen- 
dent upon this form of sustenance alone, as in some 
places the times must be few when they can success- 
fully buttonhole man to follow them, and so all the 
honey guides there have been cannot each have had 
sufficient individual repetitions of the experience to 
enable them to acquire the instinct. 



CHAPTER XVII 

TUSKS OF ELEPHANT AND THEIR MEASUREMENTS 

I TRUST the reader is not bored with elephant. It 
is a subject I hate leaving. In former notes about them 
I gave it as my opinion that the biggest tuskers moved 
about in small parties of perhaps four or five together. 
1 am inclined to think now that the very biggest will 
more often, or equally often, be found in male herds 
of perhaps about ten animals together, and such herds 
often contain quite small and young males. 

In Nyasaland and North Eastern Rhodesia, there are 
a fair number of elephants, but the tusks seem to run 
much smaller than in Uganda and the Lado. There, 
sixty pounds or so was considered a very fair tusk, and 
the elephant carrying these were usually found in small 
groups. On the other hand, the females also were gen- 
erally found in small groups, although occasionally they 
might be found in herds of twenty or so. I never saw or 
heard of anything like the great herds of several hun- 
dred which occur in Uganda, the Congo, and the 
southern Sudan. 

I have always maintained that the size of the spoor 
is a very good general indication as to the size of the 

270 



TUSKS AND THEIR MEASUREMENTS 271 

tusk. I do not mean to say that the rule is infaUible, 
but by observing closely the spoor, the hunter will 
save himself a lot of trouble for nothing in following 
worthless tusks. If he followed nothing under twenty 
inches he would be fairly safe for a fifty-pounder, al- 
though bigger tuskers sometimes occur with smaller 
spoor and forty-pounders sometimes run to twenty-inch 
spoor. The rule applies better if all the animals in 
one country or district are compared together, rather 
than with elephant from another in which there may 
be a tendency to grow bigger or smaller feet. For 
instance, Uganda elephant are big-footed. However, 
by looking at the following tables he will be able to 
judge better for himself. I am afraid that they do not 
cover enough individuals to make them really trust- 
worthy or valuable. 

The Baganda as a rule, if they find fresh spoor, bring 
a stick showing the measurement, which is very satis- 
factory, as it prevents one dashing out after females or 
small males. They will also, if they find a dead ele- 
phant, bring in a stick the length of the part of the tusk 
protruding from the gums and a bit of bark the measure- 
ment of the girth of the tusks at the gums. 

The height of an elephant is no indication of the size 
of the tusks or the size of the spoor. The measure- 
ments of the spoor below have been all taken off the 
dead animal's forefoot, so as to be uniform. The meas- 
urement is from front to rear, only including the well- 



272 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

worn part of the foot and thus excluding about an inch 
of toe. Measurements on the ground would therefore 
read larger as a rule. My reading would correspond 
to the size of the faint impression on a hard surface, 
covered by a very thin layer of sand, just sufficient to 
show the impression. To be uniform with my measure- 
ments, about an inch should be deducted from a spoor 
measured in soft sand or mud, where the toe just shows, 
and one and a half to two inches in deep spoor marks, 
where the whole foot has sunk below the surface. Of 
course the hunter must judge for himself whether it be 
a clean spoor mark or whether the foot has slipped. 
In the latter case he must find where the second im- 
pression of the back of the foot comes. 

As regards the heights at the shoulder I cannot guar- 
antee them within an inch or so. An elephant will 
either fall on his side or in a sitting posture. If in the 
latter, it will be impossible to adequately judge his 
height at the shoulder. 

If he falls on his side, the leg is seldom absolutely 
straight, and it will be found impossible to straighten 
it after death, whilst even the most intrepid hunter 
and ardent observer would hesitate to try to do this 
before. So after pulling the leg as nearly straight as 
possible, often a small allowance must be made for the 
actual position it would assume when straight. Next 
I have put in two uprights, one at the shoulder and one 
at the sole or assumed position of the sole. Then I 



TUSKS AND THEIR MEASUREMENTS 273 

have measured the distance between these two uprights 
from about five feet up their height. If these uprights 
are not absolutely vertical, an inch or so of error may 
easily creep in. What I want to say is that I have 
done my best to get a true measurement, but have only 
used rough-and-ready methods and so they may easily 
be a couple of inches out either way. 

Another point is, and about this I am not certain, 
how near a lying-down measurement corresponds to a 
standing- up measurement. I believe a man is slightly 
longer when stretched out full length in bed than he is 
when standing upright. Perhaps an inch should be 
deducted on this account. 

Only during the last few years have I been measur- 
ing elephants carefully, especially their tusks, with a 
view to observing the proportion of tusk outside the 
gums to that inside the head. Still later it occurred 
to me that a measurement on the outer curve of a 
tusk was not a satisfactory guide to the cubic capacity 
unless one knew how much it curved. A better guide 
would be a mean between the measurement of the 
outer curve and the inner curve, and so the tusks of 
the last few elephants I have shot I have measured 
in this way. 

This again is no absolute guide unless one knows 
the size of the hollows, which would require very intri- 
cate measurement. I have tried to indicate these 
by putting in the column of remarks "old" or "young." 



274 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I have also shown the company he was found in by 
*^herd elephant/' which means that he was running 
with a big herd of females and young, "male herd,'' 
which means that he was with ten or more other males, 
*^ small party" which means that he was one of five 
or six, or else "lone," or "one of two," or more as the 
case may be. 

Subject to clerical errors, I believe the measurements 
of tusks as under to be quite accurate. 



Table of Relative Measurements of Length of Spoor of 
Forefoot, Height at the Shoulder, and Weight of Tusks 







Height at 


Weight of Tusks 




No. 


Spoor 


Shoulder 


Lb. 


Remarks 


I 


22^' 


II' 2" 


87i& Ss 




2 


22" 


lo' 8" 


68 & 66 


Approx. weight 


3 


2l" 


lo' 2h" 


68 & 68 




4 


2l'' 





55 & 50 




5 


2or 





66i & 66 




6 


20^' 





53 & 52 




7 


20^'' 





40 & 39 




8 


20i" 


lo' g" 


79 & 70 


Broken tusk 


9 


20 


— — 


40 & 39 




lO 


20" 


ii' 4" 


64 & 62 




II 


iqI" 


— — 


124 & 112 




12 


19^' 


lo' lo'' 


61 & 53 


Abnormal tusks 


13 


19^" 


— — 


50 & — 


One tusker 


14 


19^" 


— — 


50 & 49 




15 


i9¥' 


— — 


40 & 40 




i6 


i9¥' 


— — 


94 & 86 


Tip broken 


17 


iSi" 


— — 


40 & 40 




i8 


i6" 


— ■ — 


15 & 15 


Female 


iQ 


isr 


— — 


15 & 14I 


Female 


20 


isr 


— — 


23 & 21 


Female 



axs 



Left Tusk 
Lb. 



124 
86 

85 
80 
70 

69 

68 
66 
66 
62 
61 
56 
50 
52 
50 

50 
40 
40 
39 
39 

34 

33 
30 

23 
22 



Remarks 



Amongst male herd of about ten. Old. 
Amongst male herd of about ten. Left tusk 

broken; probably originally biggest. Old. 
Right tusk tip chipped. Lone elephant Old. 
In big herd. Old. 
Lone elephant. About i ft. worn off left tusk. 

Very old. 
Amongst male herd of about twenty. Old. 
Lone elephant. Very old. 
In herd. 

Lone elephant. Approx. weights. Youngish. 
In herd of three. 

In herd. Abnormal shaped tusks. Old. 
In herd of six. Left tusk broken tip. 
In immense herd. 
In immense herd. Youngish. 
One of two. One tusker. Old. 

Other of two. 

[Shot right and left out of herd. Youngish. 

Lone elephant. 

In immense herd. Youngish. 



Lone in rear of herd. 

tip. Oldish. 
Small herd. Youngish. 
One of two. Young. 
Herd of about twenty. 
Herd of about twenty. 



Right tusk broken 



Quite young. 
Quite young. 



I 

2 

3 
4 
5 

6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 

16 

17 
18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 
24 

25 



fore cutting out tusks. 



Measurements op Male Elephant and their Tusks 



Length I 



21 


i7i 


22 


195 


23 





24 


i6i 


25 


20j 



10 10 
10' 6" 



i84' 



18" 
16" 
16" 



155 

12|" 

i3i" 



19I' 
19" 



i8i" 



iS" 
16" 
17" 
i7j" 
171" 
one 
tusker 
i6i" 
172" 
i6j" 

16" 



i' 8" 
8' 3" 

6' lOj" 
6' 10" 
6' 9^' 

6' o" 
6' 2i" 
6' 1 1" 

6' o" 
6' 6" 
6' i" 
5' 10" 
6' si" 



5 3 
5' 2I 
4' "i 



4 II 
4' 9" 



5 10 

5' 11" 



4 5 
4' 32 



4 4 
4' ^ 



424 
413'' 
35i'' 



46" 



36" 



IQj 
18" 
191" 
18" 
18" 

i6|" 
161" 
i7i" 
i7i" 
i6i" 

i6i" 
171" 
17" 
I si" 
155" 

is" 

is!" 



7 If 

6' 8i" 
5' 9?" 

6' 4" 
6' i" 
5' loi" 



S 3i 
5' 5i' 
5' 3i' 



6' 9" 



S 5 
4' 8" 



S I* 
3' 10" 



36" 
30" 

26j" 

3S" 
40" 



equal 



L 


L 


sitting 


R 


R 


R 


L 


R 


R 


L 


L 


equal 


R 


R 


L 


— 


R 


R 


L 


L 


R 


R 


R 


R 


R 


R 


L 


L 


sitting 


L 


R 


equal 


R 


equal 


R 


R 


R 


R 


L 


R 



69" 

70" 
73" 



Right Tusk Leit Tusk 



112 
94 



40 
40 

38 

33 
30 
242 
23 



79 


70 


67 


6q 


68 


68 


66i 


66 


68 


66 


64 


62 


S3 


61 


ss 


56 


55 


50 


S3 


52 


— 


SO 



Amongst male herd of about ten. Old. 
Amongst male herd of about ten. Left tusk 

broken; probably originally biggest. Old. 
Right tusk tip chipped. Lone elephant Old. 
In big herd. Old. 
Lone elephant. About i ft. worn off left tusk. 

Very old. 
Amongst male herd of about twenty. Old. 
Lone elephant. \'ery old. 
In herd. 

Lone elephant. Approx. weights. Youngish. 
In herd of three. 

In herd. Abnormal shaped tusks. Old. 
In herd of six. Left tusk broken tip. 
In immense herd. 
In immense herd. Youngish. 
One of two. One tusker. Old. 

Other of two. 

[Shot right and left out of herd. Youngish. 

Lone elephant. 

In immense herd. Youngish. 



Right tusk broken 



Lone in rear of herd. 

tip. Oldish. 
Small herd. Youngish. 
One of two. Young. 
Herd of about twenty. Quite yoimg. 
Herd of about twenty. Quite young. 



*Spoor measured from front to back on forefoot. 



t Girth at Gums measured outside gums before cutting out tusks. 



r 




TUSKS AND THEIR MEASUREMENTS 275 



As regards the girth of tusks, the measurement at 
the gums is generally a Httle less than the measure- 
ment just inside the gums, which can only be taken 
after the tusks are cut out. In very young elephant 
there is more likely to be a greater divergence, whilst 
in very old ones the two readings may nearly coincide. 
In some cases they do absolutely. 

I have called a lone elephant one that was by himself 
when shot. Such an elephant might be going to 
join up with some others and, if found an hour or two 
later, would then have been in company. Again, 
sometimes an elephant remains by himself whilst 
recovering from a bad sore or a wound. 

I have several times come across proofs of a single 
elephant having been alone for a day or so and, for 
that matter, he may have been much longer. For 
instance, a very old elephant I shot recently was by 
himself, and I had seen his spoor covering a period 
of three days, during which time there were no evidences 
of his having been with any others and I could find 
no old wound or sore on him. Whether there is such 
a thing as a really lone elephant who invariably lives, 
eats, and walks about by himself, I am inclined to 
doubt. I should think it more probable that some 
crusty old fellows go off and sulk for a bit and then 
join their friends again. There is one thing about 
a lone elephant, and it is that he is often very truculent 
and inclined to charge. Also, he does not, as a rule, 



276 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

go far, but rather, if he has been disturbed, waits to 
see if he is being followed and when a favourable oppor- 
tunity occurs charges. This would be accounted for 
on the supposition that he was wounded or perhaps 
only out of sorts, and so does not wish to be disturbed, 
or is rather short-tempered and does not wish to go 
far. 

As regards the measurements of the ear, the first 
two were taken at random and they were so near 
each other, although the heights of the elephant 
were very different, that I afterwards took another 
to see if the measurement was fairly constant. In 
the same way, the first two measurements of the tail 
were taken at random and they showed such an enor- 
mous difference that I took another to see how 
variable this measurement was. 

Lately, there has been a discussion in the Field con- 
cerning the fold at the top of an elephant's ear. Some 
claim that it folds forw^ards and outwards in the same 
way as the fold of the human ear, and that the one 
set up in the British Museum is folded wrong. All 
I can say is that I must have seen some thousands 
of African elephants retreating from me with the 
flaps at the top of the ear folded inwards, or resting 
on the top of the head, and I have watched elephants 
flapping their ears from a close distance, under fifty 
yards, some hundreds of times and never remember 
seeing an outward fold. I admit that I have not 




H 
o 



< 

w 




TUSKS AND THEIR MEASUREMENTS 277 



been on the lookout for such a fold, but I think 
that it would have struck me as an abnormal ap- 
pearance. 

Since seeing the discussion, I have observed elephant 
closely and have never seen an outward fold. More- 
over, in the elephant I have shot since, I have observed 
that the top of the ear is so rigid and set that it would 
be impossible for it sometimes to fold one way and 
sometimes the other, although the loose flap might 
certainly be temporarily thrown over the rigid part, 
but if this happened it would soon slip back into its 
former position. 

I have commented before on the silent way in which 
elephant walk. When seen moving in wooded country, 
the play of light and shadow on their backs produces 
an extraordinary illusion. Whilst watching what one 
imagines to be its broad back moving with the alternate 
shade and sun dancing on it, one suddenly reahses that 
there is no elephant there. He has quietly shuffled off 
whilst the dancing Hghts and shadows have caught 
and arrested the eye. For his size, the elephant is 
as a rule most extraordinarily inconspicuous, whether 
moving or stationary. There may be a hundred 
elephant within a few hundred yards, and the nearest 
within fifty, resting in the shade, and one may be 
completely unaware of it till one hears an earflap 
or a gurgle. 

The thickness of the country preferred by elephant, 



278 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

of course, has much to do with it, but apart from this, 
they are often very hard to make out when standing 
stationary. I have often caught sight of a sHght move- 
ment and thereby become aware of an elephant at a 
hundred yards or under, and then, although a great 
part of his body is visible, been unable to determine 
for some time which end is which. 

I think when we realise how inconspicuous the 
elephant is and remember his size and that no one, 
that I know of, has ever claimed for him protective 
colouration, the folly of laying stress on the colouration 
of the larger mammals as being acquired for protective 
purposes is apparent. 

As Mr. Selous says, there is no scheme of colouration 
one could devise that would not be inconspicuous 
under certain conditions. That is to say, that any 
colour or combination of colours and markings with 
which you could possibly bedeck an animal would 
be, in the forest or thick bush, difficult to see under 
certain conditions, especially if the animal was standing 
in the shade, when colour counts for nothing unless 
one is within a few yards. So under certain circum- 
stances, all colours are protective, which amounts 
to practically the same as saying that an animal might 
have acquired any colour or any pattern it liked 
and yet be considered protectively coloured, which 
reduces the theory ad absurdum. 

Wounded elephant often get very angry and vent 



TUSKS AND THEIR MEASUREMENTS 279 

their rage on trees or inanimate objects. One of the 
district commissioners of Nimule told me that he 
wounded a big elephant near that place and on follow- 
ing it up found that it had gone for miles, pulling up 
and breaking down trees on the way, out of pure 
anger. 

I remember firing at an elephant once who, when I hit 
him, rushed towards me, screaming with rage. When 
he got about a third of the distance to me, he met a 
tree and tore off the branches, screaming the while. 
Having done this he turned round and rejoined the 
herd. 

Elephant get badly burnt sometimes by bush fires. 
It is the practice amongst the natives in certain parts 
to collect in great numbers and set fire to a large 
expanse of grass in a circle. Any elephant inside 
must break through the fire ring to get out and, in 
doing so, often gets singed. I am told they lose 
their head and rush backwards and forwards, whilst 
baby elephant often get burnt to death and are then 
eaten by the natives. I have never witnessed one 
of these performances but have met elephant with 
large sores on them which I believe are to be accounted 
for by burning in this way. 

Elephant hate shouting and stamping of feet, and 
loud shouting and stamping in front of them will 
almost invariably turn a herd, even though apparently 
stampeding blindly in that direction. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 

It is usually hard to make a native understand 
anything which is out of the way of his own simple 
life. If one is well acquainted with his methods of 
thought, or rather his lack of method in this respect, 
and tries to turn the corner instead of going straight 
ahead, one may often convey a definite idea to him 
which it would be impossible to do otherwise. Or 
if one descends to his line of argument, one may prove 
to his complete satisfaction a point by absolutely worth- 
less logic. 

A parallel occurs with us, where a smart repartee, 
having no logical value whatever and completely 
outside the point, will often discomfit an opponent 
and leave the maker with all the honours of war. 

A thing that the ordinary native cannot understand 
is that the farther you go inland, the dearer will be 
articles imported, such as calico, etc. I have often 
heard natives complain bitterly that the shops of 
Nairobi are more expensive than those of Mombasa, 
and those of Entebbe than Nairobi, and so on. 

Commenting on this to a shrewd trader in Nyasa- 

280 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 281 

land, he said that natives often complained to him that 
they could get calico at 4d a yard at Blantyre, about 
ten days' distance, whereas he charged them 5J. To 
have said, ^^AU right, you go down to Blantyre and 
buy your calico" would not have convinced the native 
at all that it was not an exorbitant charge. He would 
think nothing of going down ten days to expend 8d 
on two yards of calico. Time is not money to the 
African. 

"But lor' bless ee, " said the trader, " there are always 
ways and means of explaining to the native. I say all 
right, you go and hunk me up a load of calico from 
Blantyre for nothing, and I will then sell you as many 
yards as you like for 46?." This argument was self- 
convincing. 

There are in Swahili some wonderfully apt proverbs, 
a collection of which has been made by the Rev. W. E. 
Taylor. I have found that the quoting of a proverb 
often proves a point completely to the native satis- 
faction, especially amongst such a motley crew, as, 
for instance, caravan porters, who talk Swahili as a 
common language but are not really well versed in it. 
Often old Swahili words, which have completely gone 
out of use in the modern language, are retained in these 
proverbs. The very fact that they are unintelligible 
to him would make them even more convincing. They 
bear for him the magic of an unknown incantation. 

A few examples of the proverbs are : — 



282 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



"Do not show kindness to a dog, for he is insensible 
to kindness." 

The pariah dog is, of course, the dog referred to. 
The meaning is that if you go out of your way to help 
an evil person, the chances are that he will return 
you evil for good. 

"Whien you chance to meet your mother-in-law, 
it is then that you happen to be naked." A man 
perhaps in his village and working in the fields will 
throw off the greater part of his clothes, whilst he 
would wish to appear at his best when he meets his 
mother-in-law. The proverb means that it is just 
when one is least prepared that one is taken at a dis- 
advantage. It would be applicable to a case in which 
visitors suddenly called when there was nothing in 
the pot or in the larder. Another one is, ''The slowness 
of the tortoise takes him far afield." Meaning "Slow 
but sure." 

As natives generally do things in the opposite way 
to the white man, so often do words and phrases bear 
to them exactly the opposite meaning to what one 
would suppose. I remember hearing a white man 
calling out to his boy several times, "Fasten up my 
tent," "No, fasten it up," and then in English, "Curse 
the boy; the more I tell him to fasten it up, the wider 
he opens it." He was using the word for "tie up," 
which the boy interpreted to mean tie back the door. 

There is a proverb, "He who is not near when the 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 283 

tree falls, the tree will not fall on him," which to the 
ordinary European would mean that one should stand 
clear of danger. The meaning really is that the lucky 
ones are those who are near, as they will have first 
pick of the fruit, it being the custom of the economi- 
cally minded native, when he finds a fruit tree in the 
bush, to fell the whole tree in order to get the fruit. How- 
ever, one Sultan of Zanzibar appeared to have noticed 
the double entendre as I have described it in the ^^Land 
of Zinj," for he sent this proverb as a message to a 
chief who had been refractory some time before. 
Imagining that he was pardoned and that he was 
about to have honours and presents showered on 
him, he hurried to Zanzibar and was put in prison, 
where he died. 

Another proverb particularly applicable to the 
hunter is ''He who has not a sharp knife will not 
obtain meat." When an animal is shot, there is a 
rush for the carcass and everybody begins helping 
himself to joints. Any one who had to stop to 
sharpen his knife would find, when he had finished, 
that the best part of the meat had already been appro- 
priated. 

The native is often insufferable in his begging. 
I believe he really respects you the more if you refuse 
him bluntly and point blank. However, it is very 
difficult to do so and it makes one feel extremely mean 
grudging a handful of salt or some trifle asked 



284 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

for. Abyssinia is perhaps the worst country to travel 
in in this respect. One is asked for a present by 
almost every one that one meets on the road, and yet 
they are a people who will, on occasion, show very real 
and genuine hospitality without looking for a return. 

When approaching a spot at which I intended to 
camp once, I was accosted by two men who went 
through the usual polite inquiries after my health 
and the safety of my journey and followed me till I 
dismounted. I had heard one say to the other in a 
low voice, ^'We will go with the foreigner and ask 
him for some money." 

The usual formula was to first expatiate on their 
poverty and my apparent riches and then ask for 
something. I determined to be first in the field this 
time, so before they had time to make the usual request, 
I dilated at length on my poverty, the expenses I 
had been put to, how I had lost all my camels, and how 
various other misfortunes had befallen me. Not 
knowing what was coming they expressed themselves 
as deeply sympathetic. I then went en to comment 
on their lordly and well-dressed appearance and finally 
asked if they would give me a dollar. With sickly 
smiles they shuffled off. 

At different times I have had various natives to 
teach me to read and write Arabic, Amharic, and 
Swahili. At an early stage of this tuition, the same 
great thought has almost invariably occurred to all 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 285 

these stray teachers. With an air of great mystery, 
they produce a piece of paper and say that they have 
brought me something to read. It is a request for 
a present which it has occurred to them could be 
more deHcately put in writing. 

Different tribes have different ideas about what is 
brave and what is not, whilst others have not the 
least compunction in admitting that they are cowards. 
Although many are very plucky, their standards are 
very different to ours. 

I remember hearing a discussion amongst some 
porters of different tribes about cowards and people 
being afraid, with instances given. At last one said, 
''Well, I do not call a man who runs away a coward; 
he may be a very brave man, but he just runs away. 
I call a man who cannot run away a coward. The 
other has heart and pluck." Then he gave us an 
instance in point, an incident from the fights against 
the Sudanese mutineers in Uganda. Two Sudanese 
were, he said, sitting up a tree with their rifles watch- 
ing. They went to sleep or were not sufficiently on 
the lookout, and were surprised by a party. One 
leaped from the tree into a bush and got away, but the 
other was transfixed with fear and could not move. 
He had his rifle but he could not use it nor could he 
move or speak from fear. 

In Abyssinia I met a venerable and pious Galla 
Haji. I was told he was making a pilgrimage to a 



286 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

distant shrine, having already made that to Makka. 
His silence and grave demeanour, whilst all the Abys- 
sinians present asked me incessantly for all manner of 
presents, impressed me very much. Here, at least, 
was a man above such sordid, worldly things — one with 
his eyes ever fixed on the hereafter. 

On leaving the place, I said that while everybody 
else had been constantly worrying me about what 
I was going to give them, he alone had not asked for 
anything, and therefore I hoped that he would accept 
some presents I had prepared for him. This speech 
was translated to him in Galla, as it appeared that 
he could speak no other language, which might have 
been the reason for his silence. He took the presents 
and through the same medium he replied, without 
thanking me for what he had received, that as he was 
going on a long journey, he thought that I ought to 
give him some money as well. 

When I first became acquainted with the African, 
this want of thanks and immediate request for more, 
which so often follows a present given when the receiver 
had no right to expect anything, used to irritate me 
considerably. I soon found that I was judging the 
native by a western standard far too high to be appli- 
cable to him. When judged by an animal standard, 
the request became quite reasonable and explicable. 
Your dog is lying by your chair as good as gold whilst 
you are having dinner. Now give him something 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 287 

from the table which he has no reason to expect. In- 
stead of taking it gratefully, offering profuse thanks, 
and going to lie down again, he will gobble it up and 
worry you through the rest of the meal asking for 
more. The thought which has occurred to him is 
probably, ^^Here is a decent sort of fellow who has 
just given me something; if I wait here and ask him 
he will probably give me some more." 

So it is with the native. You have just given him 
something for nothing, and if this is your custom, there 
is no reason why you should not do it again. In any 
case he loses nothing by asking. The only thing to do 
is to tell him the story of the hyaena and the moon- 
beam, which is the African equivalent for the dog and 
the bone. 

I heard some of my porters discussing one day the 
strength of the Abyssinians and the numbers of men 
and rifles they possessed. They were wondering if 
we would be able to take their country and were rather 
inclined to doubt it. My head man, Abdi, than whom 
few more loyal subjects of the British crown exist in 
Africa, interrupted their conversation. ''Do not ask," 
he said, "if the British are able to take Abyssinia, but 
if they want to. I do not believe all these stories one 
hears of the strength of people. When it comes to the 
point, what do they do ? Do you remember what we 
heard about the Nandi, and then when we went to 
their country they all ran away? Was it not said 



288 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

formerly that Zanzibar could not be taken except if 
the Kingi (king) himself came to take it with all his 
strength ? Then what happened ? I forget if it was 
a corporal or a sergeant-major who took it." 

Another head man said that he had heard that it 
was written in a book (the suspicion of being extracted 
from a book gives any statement an air of truth and 
accuracy) that if one meets a snake and an Abyssinian 
together on the path, one should kill the Abyssinian 
first and the snake afterwards. It was also written 
of them that the elephant, the Abyssinian, and the lo- 
cust were all the same, as to being without number. 

I do not know why the elephant should be considered 
so numerous by the native. He has no head for figures 
and never follows a statement to its logical conclusion. 
He sees a great herd of elephant and thinks that they 
are without number, and, therefore, the same as locust, 
who are ^^dthout number. He would not foUow up 
the argument by thinking that a tract of country 
which would support one elephant in food would sup- 
port a million or more locusts. 

I am told that not many days from Mombasa there 
is a big snake called Mwanyika who inhabits a 
lake and eats fish, and men, and hippos, but he chiefly 
lives on hippo, of which he wdll eat a hundred a day. 
Such a bold statement is quite enough for the native. 
The suspicious-minded European begins at once to 
probe the statement. If the snake eats a hundred 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND JDEAS 289 

hippo, a day, allowing a certain amount for fish-days 
and human-being days, he will eat about twenty-five 
thousand hippos a year. To keep up this supply 
would busily engage, roughly, one hundred thousand 
hippo, breeding as fast as they could. Taking a map 
of East Africa, we fail to find a lake near Mombasa big 
enough to support this number of hippos; even Lake 
Victoria would not. One is therefore compelled to 
doubt the existence of Mwanyika, or at any rate to 
think that his appetite has been overrated. 

A frequent statement I have heard made by natives 
is that lion are more numerous in the rains. Lion 
have forced themselves on his attention more at that 
time, so he says there are more. It never occurs to him 
to think where all the extra lions come from or go to. 
Anyhow, with the miraculous always at his disposal, 
he never has to follow an argument farther than one 
step and there it can end in a supernatural phenomenon. 
However, he does not even trouble to assign such an 
occurrence to a miracle. If asked where they have 
come from, he says, ''How should I know?" and dis- 
misses the matter from his mind. 

Talking about the Somaliland Mullah, I was told 
that there was a prophecy that after the Mahdi seven 
prophets will arise. Of these the first one is the ]Mullah. 
After the seventh, there wiU be a general Tchad or 
holy war. 

I cannot imagine a more horrible situation in which 
u 



290 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

to be than to find oneself in the power of an African, 
when he knows it. Fortunately, he is very easily 
bluffed and very superstitious. If he sees you alone, 
far from help, and in a position of which he is evidently 
master, some lurking suspicion must enter his mind 
that things cannot be quite as they seem; you must be 
counting on some force of which he is unaware. A 
native of another tribe, in a similar position, would be 
running away, which would inspire him with confidence. 
What more natural than to suppose that you have some 
powerful medicine or magic at your disposal and it is 
for this reason that you order him about so freely? 

Even with the more educated African, bluff is a great 
factor. Coming down from Addis Ababa to Dirre 
Daua, I was much exasperated by the demands for 
presents from various persons who made a living 
out of blackmailing anybody who passed. I was at 
the end of my journey and also at an end of my re- 
sources, so I refused to give anything except adequate 
returns for any present brought me or service rendered. 
At Dirre Daua I had a tremendous business to get my 
things through the customs, I could not afford to give 
more than a few dollars bakshish, which I did, and 
finally got all my things on the train for nothing. 

As the train moved off, I breathed freely, for I 
thought that it was all over, and no unexpected demands 
could now crop up between here and Aden, where I 
could cash a draft. 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 291 

After travelling a few hours, we stopped and descended 
for lunch. I imagined that I had left Abyssinia behind 
forever, but it appeared that we were still in Abys- 
sinian territory. Whilst eating my dejeuner, a 
man came in and asked me if the "Senegalese'' 
in the train belonged to me. He referred to my Wany- 
amwezi porters but the Abyssinians call most natives 
they do not know Senegalese, as a Russian and French 
expedition once brought some into the country. 

Imagining that he was the bearer of some interesting 
communication concerning them, such as that one of 
them had fallen out and broken his neck, or that they 
were having a fight, I immediately admitted having 
some men in the train. Instead of any such intel- 
ligence, however, he said that I would have to pay on 
them before they could be allowed to proceed any 
farther. "Oh, go away," I replied, and he went off. 

Presently a small procession appeared ; amongst 
others was the local Gerezmach or Fitorari. "These 
Senegalese," he began in Amharic, but I said, "Go 
away," again. "You will have to pay before they can 
go on." "Go away, I am eating," I said. "But you 
must pay, or they will not be allowed to proceed," he 
said. 

When I had come in, I had coiled up my rhino-hide 
whip and hung it on a peg behind my chair. I now 
looked at the distinguished official, who wished to 
charge me export duty on my men returning to their 



292 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

own country, as if to appraise his value, and then 
turned very slowly, took down the whip, and lovingly 
uncoiled the lash. He did not wait to see what I was 
about to do with it, after it was uncoiled. 

I finished my lunch slowly and deliberately but in 
reality in great trepidation as to what would happen 
next. I had threatened a high official with personal 
chastisement; it was his country and he was in com- 
mand here. After lunch, I took my seat in the train 
and uttered a sigh of relief when it once more started 
and this time really took me and my empty purse and 
my ^^ Senegalese " safely out of the country. 

On the road to and from Dirre Daua, one meets 
constant streams of baggage mules carrying loads 
backwards and forwards from Addis Ababa, chiefly 
calico and ammunition on the upward journey and 
coffee and skins on the downward. 

I can never think of the Dirre Daua road without re- 
caUing these long lines of sore-backed animals, and the 
constant whacks and objurgations of the mule drivers 
and the querulous requests that the beast will render 
information concerning its parentage which accom- 
panies each whack. Strange to say, the mule always 
treats these anxious inquiries in contemptuous silence. 

Once, after shooting an elephant, I heard the natives 
with me saying that it was a very lucky elephant and 
had fallen very well. I asked why and they said, ''Oh, 
it has fallen looking towards our way home." I 



CURIOUS AFRICAN SAYINGS AND IDEAS 293 

suppose to the native mind, somehow, it appeared that 
it was easier to carry the meat back if it was already 
"looking" in that direction. 

The belief in the werewolf, under different disguises, 
is very common the world over, both amongst civilised 
and savage peoples. The Somali believes in a being 
called the Orgobi, who is a man-leopard; by day it is 
a man, and by night a leopard. It seizes people by 
night, the intimate knowledge of a kraal and its hab- 
itants being gained in the guise of a man by day. 

The Somalis also believe that people can turn them- 
selves into hyaenas at night. A man alleged to be in 
possession of such a gift was brought for enlistment in 
the Somali irregulars in 1900. He explained that the 
gift was not a common one, and, as his services would 
be most valuable to the force in scouting at night, he 
required rather more than the ordinary pay; in fact 
he estimated his services at thirty rupees a month. 

An agreement was accordingly made that he should 
be enlisted at this rate, in return for which he consented 
to turn himself into a hyaena, when required, and scout 
for the force in this guise. 

Before the agreement was finally closed, it was ex- 
plained to him that as this rate of pay was above the 
average, the government would like to ascertain for 
certain that he really was in the possession of the 
powers he claimed. He might be an impostor or he 
might have forgotten how to do it. Would he mind just 



294 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

turning into a hyaena in the corner, so that we could 
see that he was still in good practice ? To this he 
replied that it was against his principles to change 
into a hyaena in public. He was used to going out 
into the night, to do it, but we need have no fear, 
he was well versed in the art and would not fail us. 

The Somalis who had brought him thought that the 
European was unduly sceptical about the man's powers. 
"It will be a very good thing indeed for us," they said, 
"if we can get this man to accompany us, as he will 
gain much information for us as to the enemy's where- 
abouts." 

Nothing could prevail on the man to give a proof 
of his powers, so at last an officer said to him, "Look 
here, here are thirty rupees and here is a chicote. If 
you turn into a hyaena now, the thirty rupees are 
yours. If you do not, you will have thirty chicote for 
being a liar and trying to deceive the government." 

However, he was a clever rogue. He explained 
that he would be delighted to turn at once into a hyaena 
and gain the thirty rupees, but before he could effect 
the change it was necessary to eat certain herbs of the 
bush; he would go immediately and fetch the herbs 
and give an ocular demonstration of his powers. So 
saying he ran off to fetch his herbs and was never seen 
again; perhaps he changed into a hyaena and forgot 
how to change back. Allah knows. 



CHAPTER XIX 

CAMP HINTS 

In my "Game of East Africa," I gave some simple 
hints to add to one's comfort and convenience in camp 
and on trek. When I overflowed my chapter, I 
stopped, promising some more in the future, and here 
they are. As stated before, I do not claim to be the 
original inventor of such hints, but have picked up the 
majority from others. However, as they may be of use 
to someone else, I pass them on. 

In a semi-civiHsed country, such as northern Abys- 
sinia, in which thieves are plentiful and bold, greater 
precautions against theft are desirable than amongst 
the unsophisticated Central African. There is Httle 
to prevent an intelligent and enterprising thief from 
crawling up to your tent on a dark night and stealthily 
feehng under the flies. As the first things he would go 
for are your rifles, the last things you wish to lose, it is 
well to put these in a safe place. Resting on a camp 
table or chair in the centre of the tent is fairly safe, 
but perhaps the best place of all is to have them slung 
from the roof. There are generally hooks attached to 
the top of the tent, whose function has so far remained 

295 



296 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



obscure to me, but they scno well for this purpose ; 
your revolver is, of course, in bed with you. 

If you travel with the ordinary hurricane lamp, it 
can act as a night light, if turned low just before you 
go to sleep. It will remain burning all night with but 
little expenditure of oil. If there is an alarm or any 
noise, it can be turned up in a moment to enable you 
to investigate. 

When a sudden storm of rain bursts at night, many 
conscientious men think that they have to rush out in 
pajamas and get wet through, slackening the ropes of 
their tent. If you lie comfortably tucked up in bed 
and say nothing about it, almost always some faithful 
native, who, living in a leaky hut all his life, is less 
averse and more inured to wettings than you are, will 
come and drive in your tent pegs as they get rooted 
out. Howe\'er, in the case of the rain starting with a 
light shower, which afterwards develops into a down- 
pour, the faithful savage is generally not of much use, 
for he, like all other natives, thinks that tent ropes 
should be pulled as taut as possible before rain. Having 
niade you safe, as he imagines, by straining every rope 
to its utmost, he w^ill go oil to his own shelter. 

Then comes the dow^npour and you are unwilling 
to call to the faithful savage to return, but even now 
there is still an alternative to getting wx^t left to you. 
If you scratch a hole a few inches deep beside the foot 
of each pole and shift the end into it, you will have 



CAMP HliNTS 297 



slightly slackened v.y^sy rojjc in the tent and if the 
pegs are hrrn you will be fairly safe. 

The sportsman,^ traveller, or eollerlor usually has a 
lot of odd jjaraj>»hernalia, sueh as rifles, eartrirlge 
?jags, haversacks, camera, held-glasses, collecting ajj[>a- 
ratus, etc., being carried by various boys, guides, and 
men. 

When he halts he wishes these collected in one f^lace. 
The rifles will probably be rested against a tree trunk, 
until they are knocked over, to the detriment of the 
foresights, whilst the other things are hung uj; on odd 
branches or [^iled on the grounrl, which may be darnjj. 
Jt is y^ivy convenient to have a little barnfjoo trijjod 
on the to[) of a convenient load. When you halt, this 
is immediately stood uj^ and all the various articles are 
slung to it or rested against it. I'his insures that they 
will not be mislaid, as they may be if hung on v'arious 
branches; or trodden on, as is likely to hajjjjcn if they 
are on the ground. 7"hey are all gathered in one 
yJace and anything required can be easily found. 

Yeast for baking bread may be made out of banana 
wine or other native spirits. \\ your cook is absent, 
drunk, or otherwise unavailable, and you v/ant }jr(:<iA 
in a hurry, unless you are of a very ambitious nature, 
chupaties are the best things to make. 

First, wash the top or side of a chop box and then 
make some dough. I suppose everybody knows hov/ to 
make dough; but if you have not tried before, add the 



298 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



water by very small quantities at a time and always 
keep more flour in the basin than would appear to be re- 
quired for the amount of water used. Having made your 
dough, sprinkle some flour on the top of the washed box, 
put a lump of dough on it, and, taking a bottle as rolling 
pin, roll it out, first sprinkling more flour on the top of 
the dough to prevent it sticking to the bottle. Knead 
it up and roll it out again several times, both from north 

to south, and east to west, 
or else you get a long, thin 
strip rather than a round 
disk. The last two times 
you roll it out, put on a few 
drops of oil or fat before 
kneading it up again. 
Then roll it out for the last 
time and when you have ac- 
quired a disk more or less 
round and flat and about 
a quarter of an inch in 
thickness, put some oil or 
fat in a frying-pan and fry 
the chupaty, turning it 
over till both sides are 
brown. The only thing 
left to do now is to take it out and eat it. It is 
best hot. 

A brother officer in an African battalion showed 




CAMP HINTS 



299 



me a simple and easy method of making a revolving 
holster, which has served me on more than one 
occasion. It can be made out of any old piece of 
skin or hide, so long as it is not too thick, such as a 
piece of bushbuck or impala skin. Of course a bit 
of tanned leather, if obtainable, is superior. The skin 
is cut in the shape of the first illustration. 

The upper part is then folded at the dotted line a and 
sewn with a strip of leather or bit of boot-lace along 
the edges be. 

The top is now folded over a dotted line d and the 
end pushed through slits cut in the lower part. The 
holster is now complete 




—Be/f passes 
through here. 



and the waist-belt is 
passed between the upper 
and lower flaps where the 
arrow is shown. 

There is no sewing to 
be done or to come un- 
stitched except the short 
trip from 6 to c and even 
this could be fastened with a couple of metal clips 
if preferred. 

In hot and damp climates it is not, as a rule, possible 
to hang meat until it is tender. Rubbing it over with 
pawpaw leaves is said to make it tender. A better 
way, and one which does well with the African chicken, 
is to parboil it for one hour and then hang it up for 



300 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

twenty-four hours, when it may be cooked and will be 
found to be quite tender. 

The method usual amongst Africans of "blocking the 
paths" is very useful to indicate the road to a caravan 
or stragglers following behind. The ordinary African 
would never think of tampering with these signs; in 
fact I have often seen the branches I left in the way 
still there weeks afterwards. 

However, if there is any reason to suppose that they 
will be altered, a better way of showing the road taken 
is to pick a well-leafed branch and, just after any fork 
in the road, to strip it of leaves as one walks along, as 
if one was peeling it for a riding switch. The trail of 
leaves will then indicate the path taken. 

The value of Keating's powder to the traveller cannot 
be overestimated. Some sprinkled on the head and 
shoulders, or better still on a sheet of paper and blown 
off it into the air, will prevent flies from settling on one. 
Sprinkled on the window-sills and thresholds of doors, 
it will, in a great measure, keep out undesirable insects. 
Sprinkled in boxes it will keep out ants. 

To soften a skin, as for use in the holster described 
above, soak it in water for an hour or so after skinning 
it and then rub it with a mixture of equal parts of pow- 
dered alum and rock salt. 

If sulphuric acid can be obtained, a better way of 
dressing a skin is to scrape it as clean as possible and 
then immerse it for twenty-four hours in a barrel con- 




Oryx 




Giraffe 
Standing on the right of picture. 



CAMP HINTS 301 



taining sulphuric acid, salt, and water in the following 
proportions : — 

10 oz. sulphuric acid 
10 lb. salt 
40 qt. water. 

To clean and soften the hard native bean, they should 
be soaked in cold water for twenty-four hours and then 
taken out and boiling water poured over them, which 
will cause the outer skins to come off. 

When one builds a hut or shelter, one is much worried 
after a short time by a snowlike fall of fine white 
powder. This is caused by wood-borers. It covers 
everything and sometimes induces a kind of hay fever. 
It can be mitigated to a certain extent by soaking the 
roofing poles in w^ater, till they become well sodden, 
before using them, as after this they are not so readily 
attacked by wood-borers. There are certain kinds of 
hard woods which they hardly attack at all. These 
can be discovered by noticing in a native village any 
pole which has not been bored and asking its native 
name. I remember that in Nyasaland there was a 
kind of ebony called Mpani with a hard black core 
which the borers never attacked. I also made a list 
of several others, but the above was the most useful for 
roofing poles, as it was generally abundant. 

As to food stores, one learns much about the relative 
value of different wares as one goes on, and I should like 



302 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

to give the result of my experience, only it would read 
more like an advertisement column than anything else. 
I try to get the greater part of them in tins and bottles 
that will be of service after they have been emptied of 
their original contents. Certain jam jars serve very 
well as tumblers or can be used again for butter or other 
things if they are provided with screw tops. 

It is very convenient on trek to have a couple of 
wickerwork or basketwork-covered bottles provided 
with stoppers fitting with a lever catch. One can be 
used for carrying milk while a bottle of lime-juice or 
whiskey when opened can be poured into the second. 
Their advantage over an ordinary bottle is that they 
do not break readily and they can be opened easily, 
whereas a cork must be drawn or an ordinary stopper 
falls out when shaken up in transit. As the rubber 
washers about the stoppers perish quickly, it is as well 
to have a few spare ones. 

Rectangular tins are more economical of space than 
round ones and, if they have serviceable lids, are more 
useful for packing things in afterwards. Some 
kinds of bottles are especially useful for collecting 
insects. 

The general box of soup squares offers a great variety 
in the numbers of names and the different coloured 
papers in which the contents are wrapped up. They 
appear, however, to offer but one distinct variety of 
flavour and that can be only described as soup square. 



CAMP HINTS 303 



Good packets of condensed soups, as used by the Congo 
government, may be had in France. 

Meat extract or juice, to be used cold, is an excellent 
thing for waterless countries. When one is unable to 
eat and has not sufficient water to waste by boiling, 
so as to make tea or soup, some of this extract can be 
poured into one's limited allowance of cold water and 
drunk like that without further trouble. Even where 
water is available, a cold soup is very pleasant in the 
hot weather and this can be simply made out of meat 
juice with a little Worcester sauce and salt added. 

All tinned stores should be taken out of their tins 
immediately on being opened. By doing so, they avoid 
getting a tinny flavour, whilst if such things as fish, etc., 
are left long in their opened tins there is always a 
chance of ptomaine poisoning. Tinned vegetables 
often are improved after they have been removed from 
the tin and kept twenty-four hours. If there is any 
uncertainty about any tinned food and one is too 
short to be able to throw it away, it should at least be 
cooked, which will be less risky than consuming it 
cold. 

When I am likely to be out all day, I often get my 
cook to make some meat pasties for me. These are 
articles shaped like jam puffs but with meat in the place 
of jam. They can be put in the pocket and consumed 
as one walks along without more ado. 

An excellent lantern, for marching at night, may be 



304 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

made out of an empty gin bottle (gin because they are 
plain glass bottles). Take some cotton soaked in 
paraffine and wrap it neatly round the bottle about an 
inch from the bottom. Set a light to it and just before 
it burns out, when the glass under it will be thoroughly 
heated, plunge the bottle quickly into cold water. If 
the bottom is now gently tapped, it should break off 
cleanly at the place at which was the cotton wrap- 
ping. 

Now take your bottomless bottle by the neck and 
slip a candle into it so that the end rests in the broad 
part of the neck. The lantern is then complete. It 
is sometimes a little difficult to light the candle, 
especially if it is short, without burning one's fingers, 
but a little ingenuity will overcome this. Once lit it 
will not blow out; I have walked for miles at night hold- 
ing such a lantern by the neck. 

By wrapping the cotton round the middle of a bottle 
and going through the same procedure, a tumbler or 
jam jar will result. The upper part or neck of a bottle 
may be similarly detached to form a funnel or tube. A 
useful fireplace, for use in a hut or tent, can be made out 
of an old kerosene oil tin. This with holes bored in its 
sides can be filled with red-hot embers from a fire out- 
side and brought into a hut without danger of setting 
fire to it. When it burns down it can be replenished 
from the fire outside. If it is required for use in a 
wooden-floored room, without a fireplace, a piece of 



CAMP HINTS 305 



corrugated iron may be placed on the floor and the 
impromptu fireplace on the top of this. 

A circumstance one often overlooks, in choosing camp 
kit or house effects for Africa, is the utter inability of 
the African to deal with a screw. He always tries to 
force it at the wrong angle and breaks or damages the 
thread. So if possible no articles, such as pepper pots, 
lamp burners, etc., which are likely to be intrusted to 
the African boy, should be provided with screws or 
screw caps. 

On trek it is a useful thing to remember, when con- 
fronted by the problem of whether to march on farther 
or halt and when having only the information of a local 
guide to rely on, that in practically no case do the real 
considerations of water, etc., on the route affect the reply 
of the latter. If he says that there is no water in front 
it certainly means that he, the guide, does not wish to 
proceed that day. It does not of necessity mean that 
there is or is not water. If he says that there is an im- 
passable river by a certain route it means that he, for rea- 
sons best known to himself, does not wish to take that 
route. There may be a big river or there may not. If 
one remembers this always, it saves one being annoyed 
the next day when one finds that one might easily have 
proceeded another hour or so, as wanted, and found a 
good site for camp. 

In sending to a kraal for milk, if one thinks that there 
is any hope of being able to obtain clean milk, it is best 



3o6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

to send two vessels, a big and a small, say a kettle or 
tea-pot for bringing the milk back and a small cup or 
basin for milking into. Failing the latter the native 
will milk into his dirty gourd and then pour it into 
your receptacle. 

In crossing swamps and streams one often finds it 
very slippery and uneven going, owing to elephant foot- 
steps or muddy holes. To save oneself from falling, 
one clutches wildly at the surrounding reeds and rushes 
and afterwards finds a kind of down or fur on one's 
hands. These can be scraped off fairly well with a 
knife. See which way they are slanting, if any, and 
then scrape a knife over your hand against them 
and back the opposite way. Repeat this till most of 
them appear to have been extracted. I am told that 
there is only one really effective way of removing 
these miniature spines and that is to rub your hand 
in a black man's fuzzy hair. 

An unpleasant feature of African life is the veldt 
sore. If one has been living on a poor diet, often the 
least scratch or prick turns into a sore which does not 
readily heal. I have tried many remedies for these 
but have only struck one really good one and that was 
one told me by a brother sportsman a few years ago. It 
is called Pazo, an ointment really produced for a very 
different purpose than that of curing veldt sores. This 
is generally very effective — quickly drying up the sore, 
especially when it is used in the early stages. A slower 



CAMP HINTS 307 



and perhaps surer way to heal these sores is to wash 
them well with warm water and then pour boiling water 
over a piece of lint, rinse it out quickly, and bandage 
it on as hot as can be borne. Do this night and morn- 
ing and it gradually reduces the inflammation round the 
sore and allows it to heal. 

Shorts are so comfortable and cool for wear in the 
bush, that I have, like many others, always worn them. 
At the end of a long day it makes a lot of difference 
having nothing dragging on one's knees, as with trousers 
or breeches, but being able to move in perfect freedom. 
However, now in my old age I am beginning to wonder 
if the disadvantage of having one's knees knocked 
about is really worth the advantages gained, espe- 
cially in thick bush. Thorns tear one's knees and grass 
cuts them. One gets wary at avoiding thorny plants 
but one cannot always be watching the path. In- 
sects bite one and flies settle on the scratches and cuts. 
Some of the thorns and grasses I believe to be poisonous 
in themselves. In any case the wearer of shorts has 
generally to put up with an interminable succession 
of sores, cuts, and bruises on the knee, many of which, 
with the help of flies and poisonous vegetation, develop 
into nasty places. 

Some of these rank grasses are as sharp as razors 
and even the black man often cuts his fingers deeply 
by unwarily catching hold of them. 

It is unnecessary to warn the hunter that he should 



3o8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



always have a box of matches with him and that he 
must take every care to keep it dry. The locally pur- 
chased matches are generally so bad and easily affected 
by damp that it is a good plan to have a reserve of some 
good English-made match in a small sealed box or 
waterproof envelope. This may be carried about for 
months or years and never used, but when the 
hunter gets left out in the bush on a damp night, 
and finds that his matches have been d€Stroyed by 
crossing a river or pushing through wet grass, he will 
be thankful for the reserve. 



CHAPTER XX 

STALKING THE AFRICAN 

The usual African punitive expedition is a poor 
enough show. It usually starts by some European be- 
ing attacked or murdered, or constant raids being made 
by some tribe not in an administered area on some 
other tribe which is under the government. In both 
cases, the tribe to be attacked has, as a rule, not the 
slightest conception of the powers or resources of the 
government. In the former case, they perhaps think 
that the government is one white man, and if they kill 
him they will have finished with it forever. 

In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, directly an 
expedition reaches their country, the natives fly in 
every direction, scattering all over the country and 
hiding their stock in small herds. It then only remains 
to break up and catch what stock can be found and 
shoot down a few men running away till the "cease 
fire" is sounded. Perhaps some villages are burnt and 
then the column is withdrawn and messengers of peace 
are sent to tell the tribe that war is over, so long as they 
will submit to the government. If much cattle has 
been captured, some of it is usually given back after 
the natives have behaved themselves for a year or two. 

309 



3IO HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Possibly one or two soldiers, who have wandered far 
away by themselves, perhaps on a private looting ex- 
pedition, are killed or wounded but otherwise no casu- 
alties occur. 

On the hundredth occasion, all starts as before, but 
either the strength or the courage of the enemy has 
been underrated or a small column becomes detached. 
Nothing is seen of the assailants except a few flying men. 
Suddenly, there is a rush in thick grass or bush and the 
little column gets massacred. The enemy are either 
very ignorant of the power of the rifle or else very sure 
of their ground before they will attack. In the first 
case, perhaps there is a severe fight and finally the na- 
tives are driven back. Of course such a situation is 
what every commander hopes for at the commencement 
of the expedition, as it gives his men an experience of 
the real thing and the enemy a lesson in the power 
of the rifle. Shooting down a few stray runaways and 
being unable to catch or deal with the real truculent 
men of the tribe will never have a satisfactory effect. 

When proceeding with a column and baggage, with 
all the arrangements for food and porterage, it is prac- 
tically impossible to surprise or catch the barefooted 
savage who, if he is no good at anything else, is always 
undefeatable in the art of running away through thick 
bush. I suppose that a moderately trained athlete 
would beat any native by points on a racing track, but 
put the two in thick bush and the latter would have it 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 311 

all his own way. To see a party of natives fly after a 
small wounded buck one would think that grass and 
bush were no obstacle. 

So in the usual African warfare — I am not talking 
of the fanatical people of northern Africa — the show 
is hopelessly dull for the ninety-nine times and rather 
too exciting for the hundredth. However, if there is 
nothing to rejoice the heart of the soldier, the sports- 
man can often amuse himself, if he can escape from the 
crowd and get away by himself. 

In January, 1908, 1 was building a survey beacon at 
the south of the Uasi Ngishu, when a runner came 
through with a telegram to say that I was to join an 
expedition going up into the Kisii country. By the 
time I got the message, the expedition was already leav- 
ing Nairobi. I decided that my best way would be 
to try to hit off the railway line about Lumbwa or Fort 
Ternan if a path could be found. A Dorobo with me 
said he knew of a path to Lumbwa, so after finishing the 
beacon, we started and by 5 p.m. found ourselves sur- 
rounded on all sides by thick forest. The Dorobo 
then said that he did not know of a way to Lumbwa; 
he had only thought he did. There were masses of 
forest and the mountain of Tinderet between us and 
Lumbv/a and it was not much good attempting to cut 
through this if we could not find a path. 

The country appeared more open westwards and I 
decided to steer for Muhoroni, so we started cutting our 



312 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

way through the belt of forest that separated us from 
the open country in that direction. We camped in the 
forest at sundown. Next day we cut our way out 
through the forest, and then I took my porters up hill 
and down dale, through the most noxiously entwined 
long grass, the whole day without a halt till after sun- 
down, when we lay down. 

Next day we reached Muhuroni in the afternoon. 
One would have thought that those two days of con- 
tinual trek without halts and up and down steep hills 
without a path would have choked off any caravan of 
porters to be found. However, this was not so, as there 
were great heartburnings and jealousy over the selec- 
tion of men who were to go on and those who were to 
return to Nairobi. Finally we got a train and boat to 
Kindu on the lake shore. The expedition had started 
a day or two before, and in the distant hills, one could 
see the fire and smoke of burning huts. 

On my march up to meet the column, I was preceding 
my men, as is my custom, when topping a rise, I saw a 
Kisii warrior coming up from the bottom of the valley. 
I immediately signed to my men, who were as yet 
below the ridge, to stop, a sign which generally meant 
game and hence meat for them. 

I then stalked my man, who was going slantwise 
across our path, from bush to bush, till I had got within 
twenty yards of him. At this moment, there was a re- 
port from behind. It appeared that one of my porters, 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 313 

armed with an old carbine which used to be the weapon 
of the night watchman in camp, had crept up to see 
what game I was after. He saw me crouching along 
apparently stalking something and then he saw the 
Kisii warrior quite close, so discharged his carbine into 
the air to frighten him away. This discharge had the 
effect desired by the porter, as the Kisii turned and ran 
like a hare down the hill and I after him. 

At the bottom was a stream and into this he plunged. 
I ran to the bank and waited at the side but he 
did not emerge. I was soon joined by a few of my 
men, and I sent some to watch up-stream, and some 
down. I then reconnoitred the place at which he had 
disappeared and presently heard a faint sound like a 
hippo coming up to breathe, and on approaching the 
spot, the Kisii emerged from under a tuft of grass, where 
he had been hiding, and stood in midstream. 

He had dropped his spear and shield in his flight and 
now a strange boy, who had attached himself to my 
party in order to get to Kisii Boma, rushed up with it, 
and thought he would get an easily earned reputation 
for bravery by stabbing him as he stood defenceless 
in the water. I knocked the butt aside and at the same 
time the Kisii took the end and snatched it out of 
his hand. Then he stood in the water in a frenzy of 
terror, waving the spear round his head with one hand 
and plucking up tufts of grass with the other and 
throwing them at me in token of peace. 



314 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

By this time my men had collected on the bank in a 
little knot, and there was such a babble of noise, added to 
the Kisii's squeals of terror, that I could not make my- 
self heard. I pushed my men aside and took a tuft of 
grass out of his hand which he appeared particularly 
anxious for me to have, and then taking him by the 
hand pulled him out of the water. 

At this there was a general cry from my men of "Look 
out; he will kill our white man!" — natives always give 
credit to any unknown tribe for great ferocity and bold- 
ness — and a dozen hands seized on the spear. With 
all these bloodthirsty people about, the Kisii thought 
his only safety lay in my immediate proximity so, wet, 
dripping, and covered with mud as he was, he threw 
himself on my neck. At this moment my cook rushed 
forward and called out, '^Look out; he has a knife in his 
belt ! " and seized on the hilt and tried to draw it from its 
sheath. 

The Kisii embraced me with one arm, plentifully 
bespattering me with mud, whilst with the other he 
tried to retain the knife in its sheath, convinced that 
it was required for his execution. The cook was equally 
determined to get it and thereby, as he thought, save 
my life, whilst I was only anxious to escape from the 
clammy embrace of my captive. We waltzed round 
in this position for some minutes, the Kisii keeping up 
an incessant howling and my men all talking at once, 
while I could only laugh at the ridiculous situation I 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 315 

was in, for what with the Kisii's dinging to me, and my 
own men trying to tug me away, I was having the 
worst time of anybody. 

Finally we got the prisoner quieted down and a rope 
was put round his neck and we resumed our march. 
I have often made odd-and-end prisoners in this sort 
of way and there is one feature that is common to them 
all. Whereas at first they are terrified out of their 
wits, no sooner do they realise that they are not going 
to be killed in cold blood, than they assume the airs and 
graces of an honoured guest. So with our present pris- 
oner. I gave him a load to carry to lessen the chance of 
his trying to run away and also to ease its former 
bearer to look after him. 

He was a great stalwart fellow but after a few min- 
utes he threw down the load, which was half a tent, and 
said that he could not possibly carry it, and he wanted 
to have the rope with which he was fastened undone 
at once. 

The native is generally so innocuous and appears so 
brainless that one is apt to grow careless with him. It 
does not seem possible that he could ever do you any 
harm or show any great cunning and after a time one 
begins to be put off one's guard. As in the expeditions 
I was speaking of, after seeing nothing but flying natives 
time after time, one begins to grow sceptical as to the 
possibility of their ever pressing home an attack. I 
once galloped after two flying natives who were gun 



3i6 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

running. I caught up one whilst the other disappeared 
over the top of a little rocky ridge. I proceeded to the 
top with my first prisoner, but when I got to the summit 
I could not see the other anywhere, although there was 
a bare open plain on the other side. I rode along the 
ridge looking amongst the rocks and suddenly saw a 
little cave. Springing off my pony, I threw the reins 
to my prisoner and told him to hold them, but I just 
recollected myself in time and said, "No, I don't think," 
and held the bridle whilst I peered into the cave. When 
I looked to see if the native had appreciated the joke, 
his face was absolutely stolid. The astonishing part is 
that nine times out of ten, you would probably return from 
a protracted search of the cave and find your prisoner 
patiently sitting waiting for you. It is the tenth time 
for which you must look out. 

I remember once spotting a deserter, and I told him 
to precede my pony back to the station. It was twenty- 
four miles and all went well for twenty of these. I then 
noticed that he was getting a little far ahead, so I called 
him back to keep pace with the pony's walk, but thought 
to myself that I was being over-fussy; he would not have 
the intelligence to gradually increase his distance or the 
audacity to run away. However, a few minutes after- 
wards, whilst going through some bush, he gave me the 
slip absolutely and disappeared in the most miraculous 
way. It is very dull work keeping one's attention fixed 
on a prisoner for many hours on end during a hot day. 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 317 

Once in Somaliland we surprised a tribe at dawn and 
they commenced driving off their camels in all direc- 
tions. I rode on and chased two mounted men who 
were driving off a herd of camels, and then went on and 
surprised two men on foot who were hurrying away. I 
took their spears and told them to come along with me. 
Presently, I saw a mounted man coming towards us, so 
I hid behind a large bush till he came near. Then I 
told my two prisoners to emerge and call to him, and 
tell him to dismount, which he innocently did. I then 
showed myself and said that he was my prisoner. 

By this time, I had got six spears and another pony 
beside my own pony and rifle to look after, so I gave 
their spears back to the men and told them they must 
carry them for themselves as I could not be bored with 
them. The mounted man I told to lead his pony and 
then we set off back to find the column. On the way, 
I made a few more prisoners till we were quite a large 
party. 

Everybody seemed so cheerful and happy to be a pris- 
oner, that I was off my guard, and let the man leading 
the pony get on my off side. Suddenly he jumped on 
and started off. It is impossible to shoot at any one 
going away on one's off side, when mounted, unless one 
has a revolver or is left-handed. However, I did the 
next best thing to taking a shot at him by shooting 
my rifle from off my thigh in his direction. It had the 
desired effect, as he fell off his pony, and for some time 



3i8 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

thought he was dead. When he discovered that he 
had not been killed, I explained to him that I had only 
fired to frighten him that time and that next time I 
would really kill him, but I took good care to keep him 
on my near side for the rest of the way. 

Finally I found the column, and I marched in sur- 
rounded by my escort of cheerful prisoners. To any 
one observing the procession approach, it must have 
appeared that I was the prisoner and that they were 
guarding me on every side. 

We were just starting from camp one day in Soma- 
liland in 1900; at that time we had no regular troops 
only Somali levies, when news was brought in by the 
scouts that a large body of horse and spearmen were 
approaching. We immediately hurried back to the 
site of our last night's bivouac, put out the barbed wire, 
and waited in an expectant attitude for some hours. 
Nothing happened, and then news came in that the 
Mullah's army had passed by. 

I went out with Captain Fredericks, R.E., who was 
afterwards killed at Firdigin, to reconnoitre. To one 
side of our camp was a rocky ridge and this we ascended. 
The other side descended sharply in a series of terraces. 
We saw nothing till, just as we were about to return, I 
espied four horsemen in the distance coming along the 
foot of the ridge. We cautiously descended from ter- 
race to terrace, till as they got level with us we were 
just above them. Suddenly, they all turned sharply 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 319 

into a steep-sided gulley in the hillside. This was an 
absolute cul de sac; the entrance was only a few yards 
wide, of which the greater part was a ravine cut by 
a watercourse and so the road passable for a pony was 
only about a yard wide. After going thirty or forty 
yards into the hillside, the gully ended in an abrupt wall. 

It was evidently the intention of the men to hide their 
ponies in this gully, whilst one or two of them climbed 
up the hill to reconnoitre. We were very anxious to 
catch a prisoner so as to find out what the Mullah's force 
was going to do and where they were. 

As the last horseman turned into the gully, I dropped 
his pony and it fell dead across the path, more or less 
blocking the exit. The others rushed up to the end of 
the gully and leaving their ponies commenced scram- 
bling up the hillside like baboons. I ran round above 
them but by the time I saw them again they had nearly 
reached the top, dodging in and out of sight up a rift. 
I fired over their heads to try to stop them, without 
effect. I saw one man disappear at the top, crouching 
low and holding his shield over his back as he ran, 
fondly imagining that it was bullet-proof. 

I called to Fredericks, who had been just round the 
corner and had now appeared at the spot from which I 
fired. He climbed down into the gully to seize the 
ponies, whilst I climbed round the top of the gully 
hoping that there was still a man in the rift whom I 
could intercept. 



320 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I climbed down the rift, which was full of crevices 
and holes, whilst Fredericks covered me with his rifle 
from the other side of the gully, where he could see 
better than I could in case a man sprang out of some 
unexpected place. However, I could find no trace of 
the men, except a whip dropped on a ledge. After 
reaching the bottom, we took the three ponies, one of 
which was a well-known white one called '^ Godir Hore" 
(fleeter than the Kudu), and returned to camp very 
pleased with ourselves. I rode the pony through the 
rest of the expedition alternately with my old camel and 
it afterwards earned the title of ''fleeter than the snail." 

On another occasion in Somaliland, I was rounding up 
some zaribas by night. There were three in the route 
of our march and I particularly wished to capture every 
man, woman, and child in these three, so as to prevent 
the possibility of any news of our approach being sent 
on to the tribe we hoped to surprise in our front. 

Our guide took us to the neighbourhood of one of the 
zaribas and we were trying to find it in the dark when 
a strong whiff of cattle and goat came down wind to us. 
We followed this up wind and came on the kraal. By 
the way, if one is uncertain if one is on the path or not 
in a desert country at night, one can often satisfy one- 
self by picking up a handful of dust and smelling it. 
If it smells of camel or goat it is the path. 

I had about twenty irregulars with me and we ap- 
proached the village quietly. When we got near, a ser- 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 321 



geant and I went forward to reconnoitre. We found 
two sentries at the door of the kraal about five 
yards apart fast asleep. I told the sergeant to wake one 
without any noise, whilst I went to the other, and push- 
ing with my foot to wake him up at the same time 
pointed a murderous-looking great spear at his throat 
and told him not to make a noise. 

I suppose if one was a black man it would be a fairly 
alarming experience to be aroused suddenly from sleep 
to find a white man standing over one with a great 
spear. Anyhow, this SomaH seemed to think so. For 
a moment he was speechless with terror and then he 
covered his head up in his tobe and started screaming 
lustily. I kicked him and told him to be quiet but he 
only screamed the louder, and then seized my foot and 
began kissing and slobbering over it. I felt very like 
sticking him with the spear, as by now the alarm had 
been given. 

By this time, the rest of the men had come up, so 
leaving him with them I ran into the village with the 
sergeant and we just arrived as they were coming out 
of their gurgis (camel mat huts) . We explained quickly 
that we did not wish to hurt any one if they did not run 
away. It was a fairly big village and by the time we 
had despatched all the prisoners and stock to our 
bivouac under escort we had not many men left. 

We then went on to the next kraal and repeated the 
same performance. When we had despatched these 



322 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

prisoners and stock, it was just dawn and there was only 
the sergeant left with me and still another kraal to 
tackle. However, this proved to be a very small one. 
It was just light as we approached it, so I directed the 
sergeant to surround the village from one side, whilst I 
did the same to the other. 

While I was creeping round the wall of the zariba 
looking for the doorway, a man suddenly came out and 
walked into the bush. I followed him stealthily and 
when I was about five yards from him he suddenly 
heard me and whipped round, raising his spear into the 
awkward attitude above the shoulder that the Somalis 
adopt for stabbing. My spear was about four times as 
big as his, so levelling it I charged at him. I was 
longing to try that spear but I was baulked at the last 
moment, for he dropped on to his knees and cried for 
mercy. Subsequently, I broke the haft across the 
back of one of my own men at Firdigin who pretended 
that he was wounded so as to get under cover. 

There were not many people in the village, so we 
rounded them up and brought them back. All the 
prisoners were left under escort with orders that they 
should be released on the next day, by which time we 
should have arrived at our destination. We proceeded 
on our way and succeeded in surprising the people we 
wished to. 

The last little incident I will recall is of rather a 
different nature. I came to the branch of two ways in 



STALKING THE AFRICAN 323 

the Danakil country and was uncertain which was 
the best to take. Seeing a little village about half a 
mile away, I went to it with my head man to ask for 
information; meanwhile my caravan trekked on down 
one of the two ways. 

There were about half a dozen men in the village and 
they were not very informative. They said that they did 
not know, and that both ways were the same, and one 
said that both were right and another that both were 
wrong. Whilst I was eliciting this useful information, 
my head man like a fool gave one of the men half a 
dollar and asked him to bring him some milk. When 
I turned to go, he told me that he could not get either 
the half-dollar back or the milk from them. 

I asked where the half-dollar was, and they all denied 
having ever seen it. One man spoke rather thickly 
and my head man said, " I believe, master, that man has 
it in his mouth.'' It would have grieved me very much 
to have gone away and left them to think what a parcel 
of new chums we were, yet this appeared to be the only 
course to follow, as the Danakils are genial, cheery 
birds who would not think twice about sticking one 
with their big spears, so the use of violence was out of 
the question, unless I wanted to risk a fight and having 
to shoot some one. 

However, with the native there are always ways and 
means, as my old trader friend said. I suggested that 
the man had the coin in his mouth and he shook his 



324 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

head and the others got quite heated about it. I felt 
rather annoyed but pretended to be vastly amused. 
I turned to the others and pointed over my shoulder 
and at my mouth by way of taking them into my 
confidence and saying, "Now you will see some fun.'' 

Then I suddenly caught the man by the back of the 
neck, after the manner school-boys have of gripping 
each other and which must really be very painful to a 
scraggy-necked individual like a Danakil if one gets a 
good grip on him. 

Like a conjuring trick the coin appeared out of 
his mouth and the man looked so discomfited that 
it compelled the others to laugh. I do not suppose 
that they knew that I was hurting him but imagined 
that it was only chagrin at losing his half-dollar which 
made him look so unhappy. 

I had still my own to get back out of the man for try- 
ing to fool me, so I roared with laughter, poking him again 
and again in the ribs with the butt of my riding whip, as 
if I thought him the funniest and best fellow in the world, 
at the same time gripping him harder and harder by the 
neck. At last my merriment so overcame me, that I 
rocked about in an ecstasy of good-natured laughter, 
winking at the others, shaking him violently by the 
scruff of the neck, and digging him jocularly in the ribs 
with the hard butt of my whip. When I had half 
strangled him, I suddenly dropped him, and waving my 
arm to the others swiftly retired. 



CHAPTER XXI 

HUNTING THE BONGO 

For long I had heard about the wariness of the East 
African bongo and had been anxious to try for it but 
it was some time before I had an opportunity. The 
first time that I came across its tracks was on Kinangop. 
From all appearances it seemed to be a very rare 
visitor there, probably occasionally wandering up from 
the forest to the south of the mountain, and all the 
tracks I had pointed out to me were old ones. Still, 
if I had no chance of hunting the bongo, I had an oppor- 
tunity of getting f amiHar with its track, its haunts, and 
many of its habits. 

Later I was sent to look for a suitable point for a 
beacon in the forests of the escarpment. It immedi- 
ately struck me that this would be a most likely spot 
to find the bongo, and before I had reached the locality, 
I had learnt from Dorobo that it was indeed to be 
found there. 

As it is a very wary animal, the next thing to do was 
to take every precaution, compatible with performing 
the work I had to do, that my porters did not disturb 
■^ p animal, which would have spoilt my chances, as 

325 



326 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the slightest noise or disturbance would at once clear 
the neighbourhood of any bongo there were. 

Fortune favoured me in this respect, as we found a 
goat path leading into the forest from the last villages 
and, after following it for a short time, came upon a 
large space which had been cleared by the natives to 
form plantations eventually. The trees had been 
felled and the undergrowth cleared and then it had been 
left waiting for the felled trees to dry so that they could 
be burnt ; meanwhile no one came there. 

I pitched camp in the centre of this spot, which was 
really inside the forest and yet my camp was some way 
from the edge of the trees. To the west was a belt of 
forest which separated us from the outer world, whilst 
to the east was the main forest and the prevailing wind 
came from this direction. As there was plenty of iire- 
w^ood to hand and a stream ran through the clearing, 
there was no inducement to the porters to penetrate the 
undergrowth and, moreover, from the lay of the land it 
seemed a very suitable place from which to search for 
the required point. 

Having settled camp, I set out with a Dorobo to find 
the highest point in the vicinity, which was not at all 
apparent with the whole country covered with forest 
and mist, and incidentally to look for a bongo. We 
found plenty of spoor, some of it of the night before, 
on the banks of the stream some way into the forest. 

To any one who does not know this particular forest 



HUNTING THE BONGO 327 

or a similar one, it may sound fairly easy work walking 
about in a forest, so it will be necessary to explain its 
exact nature before the difficulties of coming up to a 
bongo or even of proceeding any distance at all are 
apparent. 

First imagine numbers of trees of all sizes, close 
together, with their branches so entwined that the 
sunlight only reaches the ground in a few patches here 
and there. Then imagine these interlaced from the 
ground upwards in a perfect network of lianas and 
creepers. On the ground there is an accumulation a 
foot deep of dead wood and twigs of all ages of decay, 
from the soft, rotten wood at the bottom to the brittle, 
crackling twigs on the top which betray your presence, 
walk you never so wisely. Then imagine numberless 
fallen trees scattered about in all directions, and finally 
fill up any interstices left, to the height of about six 
feet, with undergrowth, stinging nettles, convolvulus, 
and there you have the forest. 

In parts there appears to be an absence of green 
undergrowth, except for shoots with which the floor is 
carpeted. Even in these parts, however, the gnarled 
stumps and branches, the lianas and creepers are so 
closely entwined, that there is not room to put your 
head through without pushing something aside. 

The thickness of the green parts may be best illus- 
trated by the following. Whilst pushing through such 
stuff I would suddenly bark my shins against a fallen 



Z2^ HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

tree concealed in the undergrowth. After climbing 
over this, one would perhaps push on for a couple of 
yards and meet with the same experience again, sur- 
mount this obstacle, and then bump up against another 
close by. Then one would proceed some way before 
meeting another series. After having this coincidence 
thrust home on me several times, I realised that the 
two or three trees met close together were but branches 
of the same fallen tree which was so entirely enveloped 
in undergrowth that it was invisible. Such, then, is the 
home of the bongo, who, as I have suggested before, is 
of a retiring nature and prefers seclusion. 

Whilst making a search for the point required, I came 
on the fresh spoor of bongo of the night before. This 
animal appears only to move about, to any extent, at 
night, whilst by day it lies up listening for any sounds. 
It is practically impossible for anything to come near 
it without its hearing the rustling of leaves and snap- 
ping of twigs. 

If the country in which it lives is so thick, the reader 
might ask, how does the bongo himself, who is as big 
as a cow, move through it ? First he has had plenty of 
practice ; next, he, when moving through bush, shapes 
himself like a wedge, his nose being the thin end, and 
lastly, he has plenty of weight behind him with which 
to break through and push aside obstacles and he does 
not himself mind making the crashing and crackling 
noises which would be fatal to his pursuer. 



HUNTING THE BONGO 329 

The bongo does not appear to jump obstacles like 
the bushbuck but pushes through or under them. A 
branch across the path which a bushbuck would jump, 
the bongo will crouch under. I take it that the 
bongo's attitude in moving is with the neck out- 
stretched and near the ground, the nose right forward, 
the horns laid flat on the back, and the legs in a crouch- 
ing position. If he comes to a netted mass of lianas he 
shoves his nose underneath them or through a gap near 
the ground and as he pushes forward the gap is enlarged 
by his spreading horns, whilst the thick lianas slip down 
them and over his flanks. Anywhere his horns can 
get through, the rest of his body can pass. 

They generally go in family parties or two or three 
together. The females have horns and their method 
of procedure is, as far as I can see, just the same as that 
of the male. With the bushbuck the females are horn- 
less and so they have to rely on crouching through or 
jumping over obstacles more than the male, who could 
push the undergrowth aside with his horns but does not 
do so, at least to the extent that the bongo does. 

Well, to continue, having found a fresh bongo 
track, I argued that the worst thing that I could do 
would be to alarm the animal, as this would lose me my 
bongo that day, and also alarm the neighbourhood, 
prejudicing my chances in the future. If, however, I 
did not come up with it, no harm was done and I was 
equally likely to find other tracks the next day. So the 



330 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

thing to do was to go absolutely noiselessly, no matter 
how slowly, and if I only managed to cover a few 
hundred yards in the day, no matter, I would get 
another chance. The only thing I feared was a change 
of wind or a bad wind, in either of which cases I should 
have given up for the day. However, the wind was 
perfect, and so we, the Dorobo and myself, followed the 
spoor as gingerly as possible, I in front and the Dorobo 
behind. 

There is one thing a Dorobo can do and no other 
native that I can think of, and that is to move noise- 
lessly through thick bush. Every branch in the way I 
pushed very slowly and gently aside, and after slipping 
past, the Dorobo took it and placed it noiselessly in its 
original position. If I had not enough hands to deal 
with all the branches, he leaned forward and helped. 
The lianas we crawled through and under. As we 
proceeded like this, a shower of rain came on and the 
patter, patter on the myriads of leaves drowned all 
lesser sounds. It was the best thing that could have 
happened. 

I was always peering ahead and listening for the 
slightest sound. Suddenly, from close by, came the 
sound I had been fearing to hear and yet hoping for, 
the sudden crashing of undergrowth. I rushed for- 
ward ; one animal was crashing away ahead, whilst 
about fifteen yards in front, I saw the bushes moving 
and just caught a glimpse of something dashing across. 




•J 

H 



HUNTING THE BONGO 331 

I fired at once and at the same time heard another go 
off to my left. I then ran forward as fast as the under- 
growth would permit and found a beautiful female 
bongo as large as a cow laid out dead. It was a very 
lucky shot, as I had to fire through bushes and grass 
and so could only guess where the heart was. 

As there was no sunlight, I was unable to photograph 
it. I sent for some porters, but they were utterly 
unable to lift it, so finally we had to skin it and cut it 
up. As there was no sun for the next two days, all I 
got were some very misty pictures of the head with the 
skin spread out behind it. 

Next night I had bongo-tail soup and bongo mar- 
row, dishes I expect very few have eaten, whilst I 
made some excellent biltong of some of the meat which 
had streaks of fat in it. 

Between the time that I shot the bongo and that at 
which the porters arrived, I made further investigations 
of the country and climbed a tree and in an interval, 
when the mist raised a little, decided on what must be 
the point. 

The next day I set the porters to work to cut a path 
to the rise selected, and this done, we found that it 
would require an immense amount of clearing and 
trees felled, before one could see in the required direc- 
tions. From now onwards I used to start every day at 
dawn to have a look round the forest, then join my porters 
on the hill at eight o'clock, work at cutting till 4 p.m., 



332 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

having my lunch brought up to me, and then take an- 
other turn in the forest till dark. The height was 
about eight thousand feet, the nights were very cold, 
whilst we practically never saw the sun for the fort- 
night we were there, and quite half the time the whole 
forest was enveloped in thick mist. The cool air and 
the lack of sun, after trekking about on the hot plains, 
made one feel as fit as possible and one never wanted 
to sit down and rest. 

How my porters did not frighten the whole country- 
side with their noise and the woodcutting, I do not 
know, but, as I have said, there was a strong and con- 
stant breeze from the east. I used to reach the hill 
quickly by our path and from there take an old bongo 
track eastwards, which was fairly good going, and so get 
as far away as I could. I came across fresh bongo 
tracks again on several occasions and once came up 
within twenty yards of one, a male this time. However, 
I was only following them to learn their habits, as my 
license only allowed one to be shot, though I think if a 
tempting shot had offered, I could not have resisted it. 
As they are fairly common and so difficult to get, it 
would not endanger them in the slightest if a thousand 
were allowed on a license, as not more than two or three, 
if that, would be shot in the year all together. 

The male I came up with had dug up a tree by the 
roots with its horns. I noticed this on several occasions, 
but in this case the marks were quite fresh. He had 



HUNTING THE BONGO 333 

dug his horns under the roots in several places and then 
levered upwards till the root had broken; he had eaten 
some of the roots and some of the leaves and some of the 
bark of this tree, so that it had afforded him a variety 
of dishes. He was with one other and we were betrayed 
by the wind as they had moved round before lying 
down. 

Whilst returning from this hunt, I examined closely 
the leaf of one of the plants that grow thickly on the 
floor of the forest. Some of these leaves were covered 
with a delicate pattern which resembled fine lace. I 
found that it was caused by a small caterpillar which 
ate a carefully traced pattern round and round, starting 
from the outside. He ate only the green part leaving a 
pattern of a network of veins. Finally when he had 
gone round and round in diminishing circles till he had 
reached the centre, he there made himself a little place 
in which to transform. 

The bongo's track generally sinks deep into the mass 
of twigs and rotting leaves which cover the ground. 
My way of walking with as little crackling of twigs as 
possible was to put my toe into the track of the animal 
I was following, and then bring the weight of the foot 
very gradually down. Just where the bongo had 
stepped, the weight of the heavy animal had broken 
any twigs there were to be cracked. However, unfor- 
tunately my foot was bigger than that of the bongo 
and so, unless one could proceed continually on one's 



334 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

toes, like a ballet dancer, one had perforce to put part 
of the foot outside the track. 

The bongo eats bamboo leaves, as well as some of the 
small plants which spring up to the height of a couple of 
feet, and is also addicted very much to pith and rotten 
and decayed bark. It also eats charred wood from 
burnt trees. 

Bongo forests are pierced by a network of old tracks 
and probably these are largely used in changing grazing 
grounds or travelling at night. They form about the 
only practical method of moving about the forest and 
even these involve a continuous crouching and crawling. 

Whilst grazing they of course choose fresh ground 
to get fresh food. They often come to the edge of the 
forest or even at night a little way into plantations, 
which extended well into the forest. However, to lie 
up they choose thick undergrowth in the depths of 
the forest. If you see tracks in some of the more open 
parts, they may be followed quickly, as there is little 
fear that they will be lying up close by, but have only 
come to graze there at night. 

The West African bongo appears, from all accounts, 
to be quite a dangerous animal, and cases have fre- 
quently occurred of natives being damaged or killed by 
them. I have been able to hear of no similar case with 
the East African bongo. 

After a week of cutting, our space was cleared and 
for the next few days I had to be all day on the hill 



HUNTING THE BONGO 335 



erecting the beacon. That finished, I had nothing to 
keep me and so trekked away at once to my next point, 
which was in the Kikuyu country. 

I never had an opportunity of returning to these 
forests, but I met the bongo spoor again near the ravine 
of Kamasia. However, all I saw was old and I had no 
time to get out in search of them, as all my points were 
on clear, open hills, and so it only remained to build 
the beacons and move on. 



CHAPTER XXII 

ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 

Before proceeding with these few rough notes, I 
must state that I pretend to no scientific or theoretical 
knowledge whatever concerning the insect life of 
Africa. I am just a casual observer who interests him- 
self in the life around him, when doing nothing else ; 
I have neither the time nor the facility for making a 
study of them. Had one unlimited time at one's 
disposal, to be spent both in Africa collecting and in 
England determining one's specimens, the study of 
any one family of insects would afford more interest 
and novelty than the study of big game could ever do. 

All big game animals must be known by now, with 
possibly one or two exceptions, whilst the habits of 
most of them have been described. Thousands of in- 
sects are awaiting discovery, and there are tens of 
thousands of which nothing is known concerning their 
life and habits. Their metamorphoses alone make the 
observation of one insect resemble that of several dif- 
ferent kinds of larger animals. 

The field is so wide and vast that it is like entering 
on new worlds, peopled with different inhabitants. It 
opens up new lines of thought and ideas concerning 

336 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 337 

animal life as a whole. If the riddle of the origin, 
reasons for structure and colouration of living organisms 
is ever solved, the key is more likely to be found by 
the study of the myriads of so-called lower creatures, 
than amongst the larger and, generally speaking, more 
stupid animals. 

From my point of view, that of the dilettante, they 
offer many attractions. There is the interest they 
give to what would otherwise be a dull march. They 
afford occupation during a halt or whilst camp is 
being pitched. Any odd five minutes in camp may be 
spent in an insect hunt. They are always ready at 
your door and even on your dinner table. For big 
game one has generally to lay oneself out for a hard 
day, one must go far afield, and an odd evening after 
a day's march is not of much use. Yet this time may 
be spent in a very successful hunt after insects, and if 
one is tired there is no need to go far; one can grope 
round in a few square yards for an hour at a time 
without exhausting its resources. 

Again the arrangement and sorting out of specimens 
affords occupation for the evenings and rainy days, or 
as a rest from reading or writing. Lastly it enables 
one to look on the insect pests with more indulgent 
eyes. If your soup does get full of beetles, your 
tumbler of flies, and moths do try to extinguish your 
candle, there is always the chance of a new specimen 
being the offender. 



338 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Of the different orders of insects, there is one, many 
members of which have been lately observed to be 
especially malignant in their effects on mankind and 
animals. This is the order of Diptera or two-winged 
flies which contains many species able to spread and 
communicate disease to the higher animals. Formerly 
but little attention had been given to this order. Since 
the discovery that the mosquito was the carrier of 
malaria, and later the tsetse of sleeping sickness, the 
Diptera have received considerable study, especially 
that section of them which may be described as 
''biting flies." 

Much has been discovered in the last few years, and 
yet the sum total of knowledge amassed represents but 
a small fraction of that which remains to be done. No 
doubt during the course of the next ten or twenty 
years, it will be found that many other diseases are 
spread by such insects. 

The tsetse has probably received more attention 
than any other fly of late years. It is impossible for 
the ordinary layman to distinguish between the vari- 
ous species of this group, as very special knowledge 
and a microscope is required to determine any specimen. 
Even with the advantages of such knowledge and a 
microscope, experts themselves have often failed in 
detecting new species and have made mistakes in 
assuming an insect is one kind whereas it is subsequently 
found to be another. 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 339 

However, with the naked eye, the difference can be 
told between the palpalis group and the morsitans 
group. I call the palpalis group those flies that were 
originally supposed alone to produce sleeping sickness. 
They are much darker than the others, and can be 
distinguished by the blackness of the hind legs, whilst 
the others have not this blackness, although some of 
them have black feet. In Glossina palpalis all the 
joints of the tarsi in the hind legs are black, whilst the 
foot is brown. It is liable to be confused with pallicera, 
as regards the legs, but the antennae of the latter are 
orange-buff, instead of being dark as those of palpalis. 
Lately it has been discovered that other tsetse besides 
palpalis are able to carry the trypanosomes of sleeping 
sickness and, as investigations proceed, it would seem 
as if the different kinds are becoming more and more 
tarred with the same brush. If this is the case, a very 
accurate differentiation of species and subspecies has 
become less necessary to medical science than has been 
thought up till now. Nevertheless if tsetse is dis- 
covered in a new place, some should be caught and sent, 
carefully labelled as to date and place of capture, to the 
nearest sleeping-sickness commission or doctor. 

There was a long correspondence in the Field 
between Sir Alfred Sharp, then governor of Nyasaland, 
and Mr. F. C. Selous concerning the habits of the com- 
mon tsetse (Glossina morsitans) in which they dis- 
agreed entirely as to the habits of this insect. Mr. F. J. 



340 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Jackson, now governor of Uganda, pointed out to me 
that they were both right, although holding entirely 
divergent opinions, but that they were talking about 
different insects whose habits were not quite the same. 
Whereas Mr. Selous was talking about morsitans proper, 
Sir Alfred Sharp was talking about its Nyasaland 
representative. This differed so little in appearance 
that it had always been mistaken for the same insect, 
till it was discovered that it had a white foot and was 
then found to be a distinct species. 

Countries may be tsetse-fly free, or inhabited by 
tsetse. In the former case, they are necessarily also 
free from sleeping sickness, or cattle sickness from tsetse. 
However, because tsetse have not been found by several 
observers, it does not follow that there are none, unless 
the observations extend over several years and are 
conducted by a number of observers. 

There are bad seasons and good seasons for insects, 
and sometimes the insects in their preliminary stages 
of egg or chrysalis are liable to hold over a year and only 
emerge the year following. Some years there will be 
but few, and some years many, and when there are but 
a few, they are often liable to escape observation. 

To quote instances familiar to the home reader, there 
are plagues of wasps some years, whilst in others there 
are but few to be seen. There are certain rare butter- 
flies caught periodically in the same locality, but, 
although they are much sought after by the collector, 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 341 

sometimes several years elapse between captures. 
Undoubtedly they are there all the time but they have 
not been found. Again, for several years running the 
clouded yellow butterfly will not be seen or only occur 
singly in the British Isles, and then one year they will 
be most numerous. 

The tsetse rather calls attention to itself than other- 
wise by biting the observer, but if there are only a few 
about, it is quite possible that he may miss them. Also 
in some seasons they swarm in certain places whilst at 
others but few are to be found. The first time I crossed 
the Kaya River in the Lado Enclave, I met tsetse of 
the morsitans group in swarms. For about six miles' 
march up the Nile bank, I had to keep a branch of 
leaves continually flapping about the back of my head 
and neck as they settled in such quantities there. I 
went away with the impression that the river bank 
at this point was always like that. The next time I 
passed not a single tsetse bit me, and I should never 
have seen any if I had not been very much on the look- 
out for them. I think I saw only two that time. 

The worst place I have struck for them was the 
Chambesi River, near Bangweolo. Also the Mangazi 
Valley in Portuguese territory not far from Fort Jame- 
son was very thick with them. However, it is quite 
likely that at certain seasons or in certain years these 
spots are almost devoid of them. In any case, it does 
not seem possible to state, even after visiting a spot 



342 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

several times and carefully examining it, that there 
are no tsetse in that place. The most one can say is 
that one has observed none. If a number of observers 
make the same report, covering a period of several 
years, the chances are that the place is really fly-free. 
Yet I have heard men who have made one trek down a 
road or path, and never stopped to examine the water- 
courses, confidently assert that there were no tsetse 
on such-and-such a route. 

If the country is inhabited by tsetse, they may be of 
the palpalis group or of the morsitans group or of both. 
Again either of these kinds may be infected or not 
infected, that is to say, some of them may be carrying 
trypanosomes and thus infection, or the country may be 
uninfected from the fact that no infected person or cattle 
have come there and been bitten, thereby infecting 
the fly. 

So a country may be fly-free or inhabited -by tsetse, 
and if the latter, it may be uninfected or infected with 
sleeping sickness and not cattle sickness (trypanosoma 
Brucei), or vice versa, or infected with both. 

However, if a country is inhabited by the palpalis 
group and not by the morsitans, it does not follow that 
it is safe to send possibly infected cattle there, if you 
wish to keep disease out. It is not, I believe, definitely 
known yet whether palpalis, the sleeping-sickness fly, 
can carry the cattle-infecting trypanosome, whilst 
recent experiments would seem to prove that cattle 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 343 

can carry the sleeping-sickness trypanosome whilst 
remaining themselves quite unaffected by it. 

Of other members of the order Diptera, there are 
the mosquitoes, certain of which carry malarial fever, 
and many other kinds, which are, so far as is at pres- 
ent known, innocuous, except for the annoyance they 
cause. 

The malarial kinds (anopheles) may be recognised 
by the way they sit ; their bodies stick out at an angle 
to the plane of the wall or object sat on, instead of 
being parallel to it. 

Of other biting flies there are the seroots or hippo- 
flies, horse-flies and sand-flies. These are not at present 
known to convey disease except possibly accidentally. 
Although the seroot, for instance, cannot harbour 
the sleeping-sickness trypanosome in his proboscis, in 
the way that the tsetse does, it is quite possible that 
after biting a sleeping-sickness patient a few trypano- 
somes might be left on its proboscis and if it imme- 
diately bit some one else it might inoculate him with 
the sickness. That is to say, it could act as an acci- 
dental carrier of the trypanosome, but not as a host 
to it. 

In the same way the ordinary house-fly and other 
common flies are able to carry and promulgate sickness, 
by settling first on one object and then on another. I 
believe they carry the germs chiefly on their feet. En- 
teric and ophthalmia are supposed to be largely carried 



344 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 



by flies, whilst I believe veldt sores are mostly caused 
by flies settling on a small scratch or cut and inoculat- 
ing it with germs. At any rate, if a cut or scratch is 
immediately covered up, so that flies do not get at it, 
it does not turn into a veldt sore. 

Of other diseases carried by the lower forms of life, 
there is the guinea worm, the egg of which enters the 
system by drinking bad water, whilst spirillum, tick 
fever, and perhaps kala azar are conveyed by different 
ticks. 

To return to the flies, there are several kinds which, 
themselves innocuous, have grubs which are nocuous 
to human beings or animals. Amongst these is a big 
fat-bodied fly which lays its eggs in huts and from these 
hatch the Congo floor maggot. 

For the philosopher with plenty of time at his dis- 
posal, the order which offers the most interesting study 
is that of Hymenoptera, — bees, wasps, and ants. Their 
organisation and habits form an endless study, whilst 
the various forms and the neuter insects, which come 
from the same batches of eggs, will afford much food for 
reflection and thought to one interested in heredity and 
the origin of species. 

In Africa there is a little pigmy bee, about the size 
of a small ant, which annoys the traveller very much 
by crawling over him. It seems absolutely without 
fear of mankind, as it is impossible to frighten it away. 
It does not sting, but if one sits near its nest, a swarm 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 345 

will buzz round and hundreds will settle on one and 
crawl about. As a wave of the hand will not send 
them off, it is necessary to brush them away as they 
settle, in which process hundreds must get killed, and 
yet those left continue to crawl over every human be- 
ing who passes, with the utmost persistence. I do not 
know what they find so attractive about him. They 
make honey which is of a highly scented flavour, but 
owing to the small size of the bee, the total amount 
found is hardly worth taking. They generally live 
in the stumps of old trees. 

There are numbers of different wasps and hornets, 
each with its own different ways and habits, many 
of which are very interesting. There is the mason 
wasp who builds a mud house, for preference on your 
bookshelf. Having completed her building, she, for it 
is the female, puts a caterpillar or grub inside and then 
lays her egg. When the young grub hatches, it feeds 
on the caterpillar till it is full grown. 

Mr. H. King, entomologist to the Sudan government, 
pointed me out two wasps one of which I had often 
noticed dragging a big, black cricket about. Mr. King 
had discovered that this wasp stings the cricket in three 
places, thereby paralysing but not killing it. It then 
lays its eggs in the body and leaves it. The young 
grubs, when they emerge from the egg, feed on the 
cricket. 

The other one he showed me was a wasp carrying 



346 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

about a caterpillar in an aimless way, as if it did not 
know what to do with it. Round and round it went, 
settling here and there and returning again. The 
reason for this was that it was followed by a small fly 
which I did not notice till it was pointed out to me. 
This fly shadowed every movement of the wasp ; when 
it sat on a blade of grass, it sat on an adjacent blade 
watching it; when it moved, it followed it. 

It appeared that the wasp wanted to bury the cater- 
pillar and lay its eggs in it. However, if it left the 
caterpillar for a moment, the fly would dart in and lay 
its eggs. If it was able to do this the grubs from the 
fly's eggs would feed, not on the caterpillar but on the 
grubs of the wasp. This was the reason that the wasp 
was so anxious to escape from the fly and the fly per- 
severed in following its every movement. 

Round certain ants' nests there is a cleared space. I 
at first wondered why no grass grew there when it was 
growing thickly round and seeds must be showered on 
the spot. One day whilst watching the workers stream 
in and out of a nest, I accidentally dropped some to- 
bacco on this open courtyard. Soon afterwards a 
fatigue party emerged from the nest and set to work, 
busily clearing up the refuse I had so clumsily let fall 
on to their village square. I then dropped some grass 
seeds on the open space and these were also imme- 
diately cleared away. To the ant it must appear as 
if each breath of wind brings a shower of seeds as big 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 347 

or bigger than footballs which if not moved immediately 
take root and become trees as high as St. Paul's 
cathedral. 

A well-known figure on the dinner table is an insect 
resembling a wasp with an enormous long, fat body, 
entirely out of proportion to the size of its wings. I 
am told that it is a flying ant and not a wasp. It is a 
clumsy fellow that flops on to the table and then wanders 
about dragging its long body after it, occasionally 
making a short flight up to the lamp with a loud buzzing 
sound and then falling back on to the table again. It 
is the most persistent thing; one may throw if off the 
table or out of the window a hundred times, but a mo- 
ment later you hear a loud buzzing, and flop ! on to the 
table it comes again. 

Once, whilst pinning beetles in the verandah of my 
tent, after dinner, I was so annoyed by some of these 
fat-bodied ants that I moved my table inside and laced 
up the tent. No sooner had I set to work again, than 
buzz flop ! and a great, clumsy fellow fell in front of me ; 
he must have come in with me or crawled under the 
flies. I had a pair of forceps in my hand so I seized 
him with them and threw him through the ventilation 
hole in the top of the tent. As I heard him tobogganing 
down the side I congratulated myself on defeating him, 
as he would be unlikely to find this small hole again 
to effect an entry. I set to work again, but a few 
moments later he reappeared and I slung him out again 



348 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

with the forceps. I fear that I must have gripped him 
very roughly this time, for when he made his next 
appearance his cumbersome body was dragging behind 
him, almost separated from the thorax. Once more I 
slung him out through the ventilation hole and went 
on setting my beetles. Presently a bodyless head and 
thorax dropped on to the table in front of me. Since 
then I have never seriously tried to get the better of 
one of these persistent creatures. 

A procession one often meets with in the bush is 
a long stream of black ants, which have just been raiding 
a termite's nest. Every member of the party is carry- 
ing a termite in his mandibles. Sometimes one sees 
the wounded being borne home in their midst, some of 
them bristling with hostile termites, who have died 
with their jaws firmly embedded in their black foes. 
The victors do not disembarrass their friends' bodies of 
these appendages, a circumstance which seems to 
prove that, in addition to being blind, they are unable 
to communicate all their ideas one to another. 

A more interesting spectacle is the battle itself. It 
is generally the smaller black ants who are the bravest 
and first go into the termite's nest to grapple with them. 
The battle is usually subterranean but it may be 
watched in the open by breaking off some of the in- 
habited part of a termite's nest in front of an invading 
army. Both ant and termite appear to be completely 
blind and so there is much groping about in the dark 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 349 

and the most comical mistakes occur. The black ant 
fences round till he runs up against a termite ; it is his 
luck whether it is a big or small one. He takes a nip 
at it and the termite turns its head and appears to eject 
something (formic acid) at its enemy. If the black 
ant gets it full in the face from a big one, it completely 
paralyses him; he doubles up or staggers about as if 
drunk or ties himself in knots. After a time, longer 
or shorter, he recovers and is able to renew the attack, 
though often with less vigour or in a nervous manner. 

In any case he is unable to stand up against the 
termite^s acid ejections, but if he has the luck to get a 
good grip with his mandibles on the termite's stern it 
is always fatal to the latter. The termite cannot turn 
around far enough to disable his antagonist and is 
carried off without more ado. As the black ant is 
unable to tell which end is which, until he actually 
catches hold, he will often come up to the right end, 
that is the rear, and suddenly, hearing the termite 
move, will imagine that he is at the wrong end and dash 
round to the other side only to get a squirt of acid full 
in the face. Others, having located an easy victim in 
a small termite, will fence round for a grip, all unaware 
that there is an enormous, great fellow with open jaws 
just behind them feeling around for a grip. 

Some, having become nervous after several rebuffs, 
will hastily jump out of the way of one of their own 
friends, only to land on the top of an enemy. 



350 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Others will be seen dashing round, up and down, in 
and out of a number of termites, only too anxious to 
meet one but unable to locate any. Once they have 
been repelled by a termite, they seem to lose track 
of its position and so it is only an accident if they renew 
the attack on the same one ; it is just chance which they 
run up against next. 

After the termite has squirted acid at several ants, 
his supply begins to give out or get less powerful ; each 
black ant who attacks subsequently is less and less 
annoyed, until at last he falls an easy victim. 

The smaller termites are unable to do anything but 
eject acid, but the larger kinds have powerful mandibles. 
They are very slow in their movements and find it 
difficult to get hold of the agile black ant, but if they 
ever get a fair grip, they never let go. 

I have several times noticed a minute fly persistently 
following round an ant carrying a dead termite. I 
can only conclude that it is awaiting a suitable oppor- 
tunity to slip in and lay its eggs in the body. 

Of the seven orders of insects, that which contains by 
far the greatest number of species is the beetle. Their 
study is so great an undertaking that it is hardly pos- 
sible for any one man to be an authority on more than 
about one or two out of the seventy odd families 
extant. 

The poorest represented orders are the Neuroptera 
(dragon-flies) and Orthoptera (crickets, locusts, and 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 351 

earwigs). When walking through grass near the banks 
of a stream, the number of dragon-flies that will swarm 
round one is sometimes surprising. Some retire back- 
wards before one, others follow behind, and others circle 
round keeping just above the top of the grass. The 
first time I noticed them darting at my boots, I thought 
that they fancied the look of them or the particular 
kind of boot polish I affected, which was at that time 
composed of hippo fat. However, I soon discovered 
that it was not my boots at all, but that my walking 
disturbed hundreds of small insects in the grass and 
that it was these the dragon-flies were waiting to 
catch. 

Perhaps butterflies and, to a lesser extent, moths are 
the insects of which most is known ; at any rate those 
are the collections which attract the greater number of 
people who take up insects. Africa produces numer- 
ous large and beautiful butterflies, especially amongst 
the high-flying kinds, which are difficult to catch. 

Great numbers of caterpillars are met with whilst 
poking round in the bush. So little is known about the 
larval and pupal stages of the majority of insects, that 
it would be a great interest to breed these out and see 
what they turn into. To be a good draughtsman and 
be able to paint water-colour pictures of each kind and 
attach them to the perfect insect when it hatches out 
would certainly add much to science. If one is always 
on the move, however, it is impossible to breed out 



352 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

insects, as they require constant attention and changes 
of food. 

The last order is that of Hemiptera (bugs and frog- 
hoppers). The bugs appear generally to live in large 
parties or hatch out in large parties together. They 
go through many metamorphoses and it is quite possible 
to mistake one insect, in several stages, for several 
different insects. They appear to wage war to a great 
extent on the grubs of beetles, and different kinds can 
often be seen walking about with a grub transfixed on 
the swordlike proboscis. They are unable to bite, like 
the beetles, but feed on their victims by sucking up 
their juices through this proboscis. The froghoppers 
are jolly little fellows and many of them are very pretty, 
unlike the brilliant but unhealthy looking colouration 
of the bugs. There is one kind with a forehead and 
horns exactly like a bison. 

In collections of insects it is always the perfect 
insect that figures; very seldom are there examples 
of the preliminary transformations attached. Those 
of the greater majority of exotic insects are unknown 
and the difficulty of preservation adds to the want of 
knowledge about them. Moreover, they appear more 
uninteresting in comparison to the perfect insect. It 
is from these causes that there are perhaps a hundred 
or more collectors busy with the perfect insect to every 
one who interests himself with the larval and pupal 
stages. 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 353 



For this reason insects have had to be mainly classi- 
fied from their appearance during their last or flying 
stage. There is a certain amount of doubt amongst 
many famihes as to the order in which they should be 
included. All classification must be greatly arbitrary 
but a more general knowledge of the preliminary stages 
would most likely largely smooth the path of the 
classifier. 

Further than this, it seems to me, knowing nothing 
about it by the way, that, were it possible, a classifica- 
tion based entirely on the characteristics of the egg 
and larva ought to be much more satisfactory than any 
other. Modern classification is not only an effort to 
tabulate our present knowledge and give names 
for the sake of convenience in reference, but it is, or 
should be in its highest form, an effort to reconstruct 
that tree up which each species has climbed and differ- 
entiated into different branches by means of accu- 
mulated variations. Thus if we say: The family 
Lamiidae is divided into the genus Docadion, Lamia, 
etc., and that such and such species belong to the 
genus Lamia, it ought to be the same as saying that to 
the best of our belief these species sprung from a com- 
mon ancestor whom we may call Lamia prototypicus. 
Further, that Lamia prototypicus, Dorcadion proto- 
typicus, etc., sprung from an ancestor whom we might 
call Lamiidae prototypicus, and so on back through the 

scale. 

2a 



354 



HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 




Diagram No. i 



However, as the different species probably broke 
off at various times from the generic type and some 
have differed more in a short time than others, the 

drawing of a hne and 

-^L-\M — 4:—^ — / V y ^ asserting that the genus 

starts from there is 
purely arbitrary. There 
is no symmetry in na- 
ture, and so a classifica- 
tion absolutely symmet- 
rical is an ideal but not 
a practical possibility. 
To return to the simile of the tree; if species diverged 
according to the first diagram, the work of the classifier 
would be made easier, and he could try to divide them 
into groups as shown by the transverse lines. 

However, these species have diverged more on the 
lines of Diagram 2, which can- 
not be cut by any symmetri- 
cal lines. There is always the 
problem to face as to whether 
the line should not be drawn a 
little higher or a little lower, 
so as to include or exclude 
another branch or two, or in 
other words by putting the 
date of each prototype back a little further, you make 
it an ancestor of another branch or two; by taking it 



f k^ 




Diagram No. 2 



ODD NOTES ON AFRICAN INSECTS 355 

at a later date, you put another branch or two into a 
different family. So it is a practical impossibility for 
the classifier to attain his ideal, but that does not pre- 
vent him always having it in view. Now the larva may 
in a sense be considered as the foetus of the perfect 
insect and, as such, it should show more clear signs of 
past relationship than does the perfect insect. If of 
three species springing into being at about the same 
date, from the same prototype, one had advanced and 
developed on its new lines very quickly, whilst the other 
two had progressed more slowly, the first one might be 
thought so different from the other two that it should 
be given a genus of its own. However, if the foetus 
really goes through some of the past stages of the 
animal from which it springs, an examination of the 
larva should show how closely these three are related 
and so help the classifier to reconstruct past history. 

Just as the examination of the foeti of mammals 
has enabled us to prove to greater satisfaction the 
relationship of certain animals, so should the exam- 
ination of ova and larva help us to determine better 
the affinities between different insects. But how very 
insignificant is the data on which the classifier must 
rely, when trying to probe into the past. His task can 
never really be concluded. It is as if an antiquarian 
were given an old coin and a bit of pottery and told to 
reconstruct from them Roman history. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

MIMICRY AND PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 

As regards the larger game, the more I consider 
the subject and the more I see of them, the more 
am I forced to the conclusion that there is no such 
thing as protective colouration amongst them, except 
such as is purely accidental. Not only do the majority 
not appear in my eyes as protectively coloured, but 
their habits are such as to make the most perfect 
adaptations to their surroundings useless to them. 
The majority are very conspicuous, and they do not 
appear to rely on their colouration, but rather their 
fleetness of foot, ability to take cover, or the difficulty 
of the country they inhabit to escape capture. 

As regards the smaller game and lesser mammals, 
with possibly a few exceptions, I do not believe that 
they have assumed their colours or markings in mimicry 
of any surrounding objects, although I admit that 
many of them may have been prevented from assuming 
more striking colours by the necessity or advisability 
of remaining inconspicuous. 

With insect life, however, quite different condi- 
tions prevail. They do not, as a rule, roam over 
great areas full of different kinds of vegetation and a 

356 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 357 

multitude of objects of all manner of shapes and 
colours. Their lives, especially in the first stages, 
are of a more sedentary and restricted nature. An 
insect may spend its whole life on one single, small 
plant. In many there is a specialisation so extraor- 
dinary that it prevents any variation of their exist- 
ence ; certain kinds can only live under certain 
particular combinations of circumstances. Thus there 
are many kinds of Ichneumons, each kind of which 
must lay its eggs in one special kind of caterpillar. 
If they are laid in any one of a thousand other kinds, 
the grubs are unable to live when hatched. Then, 
there are caterpillars who can only live on one partic- 
ular kind of plant, out of the many thousands which 
have been provided by nature. I often wonder how 
this tremendous specialisation has arisen and why 
some species, more elastic in mode of living and omnivo- 
rous in tastes, is not better fitted to survive. 

These very specialised modes of existence, however, 
enable a protective scheme of colouration to be of 
service to its possessor and, the more one sees of insect 
life, the more does one marvel at the wonderful adapta- 
tions to and mimicry of surrounding objects. It is 
more than coincidence that so many are so exactly 
like part of the plant they feed on, blight on the leaves, 
or other small objects. There must be some reason 
for this. 

That these likenesses have been acquired for purposes 



358 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

of protection appears a perfectly plausible and satis- 
factory reason, till one begins to examine them closely 
and try to put this theory to the proof. If the theory 
is sound, surely it cannot suffer by being put to the 
test. My complaint against the majority of the 
protectionist school is that they do not appear to 
subject their theory to the searching test of close 
outdoor scrutiny. Because it accounts so easily for 
these adaptations, therefore, it must perforce be true. 

If an Englishman were to disguise himself as a 
German and travel in Germany, eating sausages, 
sauerkraut, and raw goose's breast, the natural conclu- 
sion would be that he did not wish to be recognised 
as an Englishman, and that he faced these horrors 
to avoid detection; in fact, that he was a spy. If, 
however, he was followed about and observed during 
all his travels and it was found that he never went 
near a fortress, that he took no interest in mihtary 
matters, and proclaimed openly that he was an English- 
man wherever he went, the reason for his disguise 
would remain a mystery. 

This is what I feel about insects ; the more I see of 
these wonderful adaptations, the more I wonder why 
and how? 

Why should some insect be so marvellously like 
a twig or a leaf? ''To enable it to escape from the 
birds," the protectionist will at once reply, but has 
this even been proved beyond a doubt ? I am puzzled 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 359 

beyond words to imagine why it should have taken 
the trouble to become like that, yet I cannot believe 
that this explanation meets all cases, for reasons I 
will explain later. 

How did they become like this? The Darwinian 
will reply, " Through natural selection and the survival 
of the fittest which in this case were, in the first instance, 
those accidental variations which were most like the 
object they now resemble. '^ Common sense forbids 
me to strain Darwin's theory to its ultimate limits 
by imagining a slight variation from, say, a cock- 
chafer-like beetle, enabling its fortunate possessor 
to escape detection on the grounds that it is a leaf. 
Even if it is granted that it has a material advantage 
over its fellows when it has covered half its journey 
towards the leaf, such a journey will occupy perhaps 
a million generations, and during this time its chances 
of extinction are no less than that of its fellows. 

I suppose that no thinking person, who has studied 
the subject, doubts Darwin's theory of the origin of 
species as to its main facts. That still remains firmly 
planted on the foundations of solid fact and argument 
Darwin himself laid for it. Many of the lines of 
thought, however, which this theory has suggested 
require to be elucidated and further explained. Darwin 
himself confessed that he was in doubt about the 
exact explanations of many minor points which, at 
first sight, did not appear quite clear. There has 



36o HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

been a tendency to run away with some of these lines 
of thought without subjecting them to that conscien- 
tious inquiry and rigorous scrutiny which has made 
The Origin of Species so sacred in the eyes of the 
naturaHst. 

To return to the question Why? Many of the 
Mantis bear the most extraordinary resemblance 
to leaves, grass, and flowers. Such resemblance should 
undoubtedly be of service to them, as they are predatory 
in their habits and are accustomed to remain motion- 
less for long periods at a time. When their prey 
comes within reach they seize it. It would seem, with 
their motionless habits, as if they were almost entirely 
dependent on their resemblance to a natural object, 
otherwise their prey would not come within their 
reach. But, on the other hand, many other kinds of 
Mantis do not bear such a remarkable resemblance 
to a natural object, yet these kinds are by no means the 
rarest. Therefore, it would seem as if the others have 
taken unnecessary trouble to mimic some object. 
I noticed a brown one the other night, settled on my 
pink lamp-shade ; it was a good dead leaf or grass 
brown and would have been quite unnoticeable sitting 
on a blade of dead grass, but on my lamp-shade it 
showed up well. Yet it managed to catch its dinner 
whilst sitting there. If the struggle for existence 
amongst his kind was so severe that he must distort 
his body to appear like dead grass, how did he manage 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 361 

to get his food just as well or better, off my pink lamp- 
shade ? However, perhaps this is not a fair example, 
as both the Mantis and the moth it caught were in 
a position which was not natural to them, viz., on 
my lamp-shade. 

One of the most remarkable instances of mimicry 
I have yet seen was a certain Mantis about four inches 
long. Its head resembled a blue pea-flower and it was 
garnished with a topknot to resemble stamens. Its 
legs were thin stalks, adorned with buds and leaves 
at the joints, and also had flattened surfaces resembling 
green pods. It was altogether furnished with an 
immense amount of cumbersome appendages, extra- 
neous to the parts of its body necessary for the natural 
functions of walking, eating, etc. It must have taken 
an enormous amount of trouble and gone to a great 
wastage of material to attain all these accessories, 
and yet I found it sitting on the wrong plant. It is 
often the case that one finds two insects of much the 
same habits, size, and kind, and whereas one is wearing 
a very good disguise, the other appears to have taken 
little thought or trouble about the matter. If the 
survival of the fittest has led to the disguising of the 
one, to enable it to continue its existence, what right 
has the other to be existing at all? 

I was about to say that I have more often than not 
noticed that, whereas the disguised one is frequently 
of rare occurrence, the undisguised one is often very 



362 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

common. This might be considered, however, as an 
unfair statement, for it might be said that the one 
is probably less often detected, owing to its better 
disguise, and so is perhaps not so rare as it appears. 

Some of the Phasmidse (stick insects) show most 
wonderful adaptations. The gift of flight, which 
some of these possess, would seem not only to be practi- 
cally useless but distinctly disadvantageous. They 
only seem to fly for a few feet, or yards, as the case 
may be, which renders them very visible, when other- 
wise they would have escaped detection. Surely 
they could have walked these few yards. Further, 
many insects, like the Mantis above, do not appear 
to know what their disguise is, or why should these 
insects be so fond of climbing up one's tent ? I fancy 
that amongst the crowd of birds which collect round 
a bush fire are some which prey largely on these Phas- 
midae as they fly before the flames, but this again 
is perhaps not a natural condition. 

There is a certain Tenebrionidae I have often noticed 
which is nothing more nor less than the half of a small 
dead seed pod, to the under side of which a body and 
legs are attached. To see it right side uppermost 
there is no doubt about it; it is the half of a seed pod 
out of which the seeds have fallen with the other half 
broken off. It lives at the bases of big trees, and 
amongst the dead leaves, twigs, and other debris it is 
almost impossible to detect. I have picked up many, 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 363 

having caught sight of them moving, especially after 
the ground has been cleared for my tent to be pitched. 

'^The ground being disturbed is an unnatural con- 
dition," the protectionist would say, ''but under all 
ordinary conditions it is perfectly concealed and even 
if one or two are caught moving, the great bulk derive 
enormous benefit by the disguise." I grant this but 
I would disagree with the conclusion the protectionist 
would draw from the fact that this insect is the perfect 
resemblance of half a seed pod. He would say, " There- 
fore there is no reason to doubt that it has gained 
these characteristics for the purposes of self-protec- 
tion, through accumulated variations more and more 
like the object mimicked." 

But why was it not satisfied with any good general 
brown colour and non-committal shape and, if it liked, 
flattened body, when it would have been just as invis- 
ible if it lay still amongst a mass of debris ? Why 
this extraordinary likeness to a seed pod which, now 
that I know its disguise, often enables me to find it ? 

When scratching round under a tree, if I see this 
particular kind of pod I always pick it up, knowing 
that it is not a pod but a Tenebrionidae. Why is 
not its natural enemy as sharp as I am ? Surely it is 
his bread and butter and he ought to know the pecu- 
liarities of his own food much better than I do the 
peculiarities of one amongst thousands of insects I 
only examine for amusement. 



364 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I am hoping one day to find the tree of the seed pod 
it so perfectly resembles, for there is no doubt that 
it is a seed pod and nothing else. I cannot help think- 
ing that I have seen this kind of pod somewhere in 
another country before but cannot remember where, 
but this was before I had seen this beetle. Since I 
have met him, I have been on the lookout for the tree 
but have never found it yet. 

Why then has it gone to the trouble of becoming 
like this particular kind of pod which does not exist, 
or at any rate must be excessively rare, in the places 
where I have found it? Of course in other countries 
the same beetle may be found and also the particular 
pod it resembles, but here in the Lado I have found 
the beetle only. If it can live just as well without 
being a perfect representation of any actual pod or 
leaf amongst which it lives, what was the object of 
this wonderful mimicry? Why could it not have 
been content to be just an ordinary brown beetle and 
kept quiet amongst the leaves? Why has it saddled 
itself mth a pod two or three times its size which 
it must always carry about on its back ? 

It is not necessary for a creature so small as a beetle 
to be a perfect representation of anything, in order 
to be concealed whilst lying on the ground. Many 
beetles which are found sitting on leaves or blades 
of grass rely for escape on dropping to the ground 
like a plummet on anybody's approach. Although 




Good-bye 
Young elephant wheeling round to go off. 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 365 

such beetles are of the most varied shapes and colours, 
it is a fact that they are all difficult to find once they 
have dropped. 

Red or white coloured beetles are of course easier 
to find than their fellows, but any generally dark 
coloured insect is excessively hard to find. Often 
have I searched for such a beetle, after seeing it drop, 
for a good half-hour without finding it, although 
I knew where it had fallen within a few feet. Perhaps 
the beetle had made off, but again I have often found 
it just as I was about to abandon the search. The 
same thing has often happened to me with dead beetles. 
Whilst setting some up in camp, frequently one drops 
to the ground and if the eye does not follow it quickly 
enough to see the exact spot, it often requires a long 
search to find it. 

Even with his disguise our seed-pod beetle does 
not seem to be immune from detection by some sort 
of creature, it would seem, as I found one of which the 
edge of the pod had evidently been nibbled. Whatever 
it was that had tackled it had apparently given it up in 
disgust after nibbling down one side and so had done 
no harm except lightening the load on its back. Per- 
haps it was an animal who fed on this sort of pod and 
was disappointed to find that this one did not taste 
the same as usual. One must be careful in choosing 
one's disguise or one will only fall out of the frying- 
pan into the fire. It would never do to turn into a 



366 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

berry or one might find that one had a hundred times 
more enemies than before. 

There is another way of looking at the question. 
If the beetle is too hard and nasty to eat, perhaps 
seed pods have mimicked the beetle so as to escape 
from the birds before they are quite ready to drop their 
seeds. 

I have noticed a remarkable resemblance in coloura- 
tion between certain bees and certain rose-chafers. 
The rose-chafer spends most of its time settled on 
a flower, with its head well buried inside, and then is 
very like a bee gathering honey, some rose-chafers 
being like some bees and some like others. Evidently 
a case of mimicry, the protectionist would say. The 
rose-chafer is mimicking a bee so that a bird will 
not take it for fear of its sting or, vice versa, that kind 
of bee is pretending to be a rose-chafer so as to escape 
the attention of the bee eater. 

I am not saying that this is not the case, but before 
accepting such a statement I would like some definite 
proof that either the one or the other does actually 
profit by this resemblance. The pure statement that 
such is a case of protective mimicry would not satisfy 
me. If it was definitely proved that the chafer 
really mimicked the bee for purposes of protection, 
the next point that would arouse my curiosity would 
be, "Why is the bee coloured as it is?" Probably 
the protectionist would say that it was a case of warning 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 367 



colouration, to which I would reply that these bees 
are less injurious than the ordinary honey-bee; still 
it may be so. 

However, when the laws of colouration are better 
understood, it is possible that one might find that 
similar habits, food conditions, and environment had 
caused these two insects, of very different orders, but 
similar tastes, to assume the same scheme of colouration. 

It is quite possible that this may be so but to assert 
that this was the case without proof would be rash, 
as rash as to assert that these colours were purely 
caused by the exigencies of protection or mimicry. 

To quote an instance of protective mimicry of 
another kind of insect actually given by the protec- 
tionist school, there is the peculiar resemblance between 
certain of the Danainse and the Nymphalinae. If the 
one really mimics the other, to what are the markings 
of the other due? However, this is a small question; 
the other must have been some colour or combination 
of colours. What defeats me is how did the mimi- 
cry start? How did a member of a different sub- 
family produce in the first instance a variety sufficiently 
like the mimicked species to be of any real service to it ? 

For a usual condition of a mimicking species is that 
it is different in colouration to the rest of its genus 
whilst it is also rarer in occurrence than the species 

mimicked. 

This brings us back to the question how? again. 



368 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

Amongst the tortoise beetles, there are some which 
are difficult to find, owing to their habit of sitting 
quite still and their resemblance in colour to the object 
they are usually sitting on. There are two small 
ones I have noticed very alike in every respect, except 
that the one is a shade of green resembling the colour 
of a blade of fresh grass whilst the other is coloured 
light brown like dead grass. 

Assuming the origin of species according to Darwin, 
there seems to be little doubt that these two species 
have sprung from a common ancestor and that fairly 
recently. Now, if we are to believe that these insects 
have both assumed their colours for the purpose of 
protection and have sprung from a common ancestor, 
that ancestor must have had some colour either like 
the one (green) or the other (brown) and like neither. 

Let us imagine him as either the one or the other 
or a neutral colour. Whatever colour you imagine 
him, it is a long step from green to brown. If it was 
one colour to start with, what possible use could it 
have been to him to assume his first variation of a 
slight tinge of the other, when the grass around him 
was either green or brown. When he was just half- 
way to his new colour, he would have been more con- 
spicuous than he ever was before or would be since, 
because then he would be shown up to the maxi- 
mum, whether he chose dead grass or green grass to 
sit on. 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 369 

As a matter of fact, however, the brown variety 
is often met with on green leaves, where they seem 
to thrive equally as well as the green one, and so one 
feels rather sceptical about that strenuous struggle 
for existence which made it necessary for one of them 
to turn green. 

I cannot help thinking that too much has been 
made of this fierce struggle for existence, especially 
when considering the perfect insect. There are some 
kinds of insects which are freely eaten by birds and 
other things, but the great majority, once they reach 
the perfect state, fall victims to old age or an inclem- 
ent climate, or if they are devoured, it is often 
only after they have performed the functions of breed- 
ing and so this does not affect the continuation of the 
species. 

It is in the preliminary stages that such thousands 
die off, to every one that passes through these stages 
to attain maturity. Therefore, it is in the first stages, 
and especially in the larval stage, that they are so 
urgently in need of protection, and it is just in this 
stage that one does not meet with such wonderful 
instances of adaptation. True, the caterpillars and 
grubs of many kinds are like the plants they feed 
on, but I have rarely met with those really wonderful 
instances of mimicry amongst larva that one does so 
constantly with the perfect insect. Many grubs are 
strikingly conspicuous and fall easy victims, whilst 

2B 



370 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

the majority seem to rely more on concealment than 
on a possible protective colouration. 

The stick caterpillars would no doubt be quoted 
as wonderful instances of protective colouration and 
formation in the larval stage. Undoubtedly they are, 
but the whole is shaped much like any other caterpillar, 
there are no appendages such as imitation buds, 
leaves, etc., which serve no functional purpose and are 
often developed to such an extraordinary extent in 
so many insects in their perfect state. 

No doubt the colouration of these geometers is pro- 
tective, not only in appearance but also in actual 
fact. I do not deny for a moment that there are 
instances in which the insect derives protection or 
other advantage from its colouration. I will give 
one in point, but what I wish to insist on is that 
there are insects which, although coloured and shaped 
in wonderful mimicry of some object, appear to 
gain no advantage whatever from the circum- 
stance. It is for this reason that I claim that the 
protective theory unaided will not explain observed 
facts. 

The instance I would quote is that of a small, yellow 
spider which I noticed sitting concealed in the petals of 
a yellow flower. It was then in a position to seize small 
flies that unsuspectingly came to settle on this flower, 
attracted probably by its smell. What this spider does, 
though, when the flower fades, I am unaware. I am 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 371 

quite prepared to find it catching flies quite well on 
another plant. 

Again, if it is to be believed that the perfect insect 
has assumed disguises to escape from the bird or other 
enemy, what are we to think of the intelligence of such 
an enemy who has not learned to recognise him under 
this disguise? With them it is their daily food and 
their life that is at stake. Surely the bird who fed 
on the beetle in its brown days, and watched it through 
all its changes till it arrived at its present green colour, 
must still be able to recognise it under its new dis- 
guise. 

I put it to the reader, if he for generations had been 
subsistent on a green beetle for food or even on many 
kinds of beetles, would he not have grown extraor- 
dinarily cunning at finding such beetles ? Would not 
his cunning have increased to meet his demands 
quicker than any beetle could have changed its form 
and colour ? If he saw a green lump on a bit of grass, 
would he say to himself '^ green lump" and pass on? 
Would not he first carefully ascertain if it was really 
a green lump and not a beetle ? 

I am forced to admit, though, that many animals 
do seem remarkably stupid and dense at finding such 
food, but I have imagined in these cases that perhaps 
their heart was not in it, they were not really hungry 
or did not really want that sort of food, in other words, 
that the struggle for existence is not so keen as supposed, 



372 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

and that the late bird, even if it be a fool, manages 
to find a worm or two. 

Original variations are so infinitely small that I 
cannot imagine that the first step in such an intricate 
and marvellous imitation as that of the Mantis I 
have described above could have been of any possible 
use to its possessor. The difference between this and 
an ordinary Mantis is, say, that of a million gen- 
erations (a million million would really be more like it). 
An individual who had accidentally assumed a varia- 
tion which took it a millionth part of the journey 
towards becoming a blue flower with seed pods would 
have practically no better chance to survive than 
any other. Supposing that it survived and produced 
progeny; the next accidental variation, for there must 
be a second and a third up to a million accidental 
variations before it reaches the end of its journey, 
might be in the same direction but might equally well 
be in any other direction. The odds are that it would 
not be in the same direction and, if it were in any other 
direction, it would nullify the part of the journey 
already accomplished. 

A million variations all in the same direction and 
climbing towards the same goal are too great a stretch 
for the imagination if the word accidental is used. 
It is not a mathematical possibility. There must 
be some intelligence or law at work to produce such a 
result by such a means. 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 373 

However, there is a point of view that Darwin has 
suggested, but which has been Httle dwelt on orampHfied 
by his successors. That is, if the animal has developed 
from something very different, so in all probability 
has the vegetable. So, if a Mantis has changed from 
something very different to look like a blue flower 
with green seed pods, the chances are that when it 
undertook this change the blue flower was also some- 
thing very different. 

Put this back further to the ancestor of the original 
Mantis, and the ancestor of the original pea-flower 
and again put it back as far as you like. Go back 
to a time when there were practically no specialised 
animals or vegetables extant. Go back, if you like, 
beyond this and imagine a very low, primitive form 
of animal life bearing a resemblance, either accidental 
or again caused by some bygone occurrence, to some 
primitive form of vegetable life. 

It is much easier to believe that these two have 
come up hand in hand through long ages, each minute 
change in one being productive of a change in the 
other, than to imagine that a brown beetle living 
amongst green stuff gradually became green, so as 
to mimic the plant on which it lived. Given a long 
enough period of this, and heredity will come into play, 
the one will grow so accustomed to follow the changes 
in the other, that it may continue some time after the 
need to do so has passed away. This would afford 



374 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

a possible but not a satisfactory reason for some 
of the marvellous instances of adaptation apparently 
gaining little advantage by their mimicry. The proof 
or refutation of such a theory lies in such dim and 
remote antiquity that it is really but idle specula- 
tion. 

If, however, one dispenses with the words accidental 
variations and substitutes something which implies 
memory, intelligence, or a conscious striving after a 
given form or colour one eliminates the contemplation 
of such odds against the accumulation of infinite 
minute variations, all trending in the same direction, 
as would amount to a mathematical impossibility. 

Sexual selection has not been touched on. It is 
easy to believe in an accumulation of variations selected 
in this way finally leading to the most weird and remark- 
able effects but not perhaps to mimicry. At first 
sight the odds against such variations arriving at the 
perfect likeness of a natural object might appear 
infinitely more remote than the survival of the fittest 
theory. Whereas the latter at least alleges that it 
is the fittest or the most like the object aimed at who 
survive, in the former the variations selected are 
purely according to the caprice of the selector. How- 
ever, here we have an intelligent being who may have 
some motive or some ultimate idea faintly connected 
with its selection. 

The influence of environment must have its effects 



PROTECTIVE COLOURATION IN INSECTS 375 

on animal life as it does on the human being. The 
poets and lovers of all nations are given to comparing 
the charms of those they admire to the natural objects 
around them. ^'Straight as a cedar of Lebanon/^ 
"beautiful as the eyes of the camel," and so on. By 
a stretch of imagination one might imagine the insect 
also consciously or unconsciously comparing its species 
to food or natural objects which surround it. 

The resemblance or fancied resemblance to some 
natural object might be the cause of selection and 
such a cause would be far more likely to remain constant 
in one direction for a certain time than accidental 
variations. Moreover, there would be a conscious 
striving after a given form or likeness. 

Again the influence of environment might affect 
the colour and form of a creature. There might 
be some dim, subconscious memory of the shape 
and colour of the plant it had always fed on, that 
might induce in the insect a series of infinitesimal 
modifications which, when accumulated, arrive at 
the result we see. 

If I had to believe in some unproved theory to ac- 
count for these likenesses, I would much rather believe 
in some such as this, wild as it is, for it would fit in 
better with facts as I observe them. It would at least 
account for the very free and easy way that insects 
neglect to take full advantage of their adaptations. 
That is to say, a theory, to my mind, should explain : — 



376 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA 

I. The cause of these wonderful adaptations m the 
insect world. 

2. The reason why so many of them are apparently 
perfectly useless to their possessors. 

As, however, it is not necessary for me to believe 
in anything, I wonder only more and more Why? 
and How? 



INDEX 



Abdi Hassan, head man, i68. 

Aberdare range, elephant hunting on the, 

Abyssinians, respect for the buffalo 
among, 87 ; method of shooting buffalo 
practised by, 87-88 ; begging habits of, 
284; thievery among, 295. 

Africans, limitations of existence of 
native, 205-207 ; improvidence of, 
207-208; curious family relations of, 
208-209; degree of skill in bushcraft, 
209-210 ; poor eyesight of, 210 ; vague- 
ness as to time and distance, 211-214; 
occupations and ideas of labour among, 
214-216; division of labour unknown 
to, 216-218; lack of trustworthiness of, 
219; extreme tolerance characteristic 
of, 221; courtesy exercised toward 
white men by, 222; density of, con- 
cerning the unusual, 280-281 ; prov- 
erbs of the, 281-283; begging by, 
283-284 ; conception of courage among, 
285 ; qualities and characteristics in 
warfare with white men, 309 ff. See 
also Servants. 

Ambatch rafts, 95, 98-100. 

Ants, observations of, 346-350. 

Arabs, comprehension of black man's 
failings by, 181. 

Athi River, animals in region of the, 259. 

Awemba country, measurement of dis- 
tances in the, 214. 

Banana wine, yeast from, 297. 

Bandanas for savage wear, 77. 

Bangweolo, Lake, hunting near, 33. 

Bantu servants, 155, 158, 165, 168, 205 ff. 

Bees, possibilities for study of, 344-345 ; 
question concerning protective coloura- 
tion in, 366-367. 

Beetles, study of, 350-351 ; protective 
colouration in, 364-366, 368 ff. 

Begging characteristic of natives, 283- 
284. 

Bongo, hunting the, 325 ff.; habitat of 
the, 326-328; method of penetrating 
forests, 329; food of, 334. 



Bravery, native Africans' ideas of, 285. 

Bruce, Captain, 25. 

Buffalo, hunting the, 80 ff. ; danger of 
hunting, as compared with other game 
animals, 81-82 ; restrictions on shoot- 
ing, 83; adventures with, 84-87; 
destruction of, by rinderpest, 88; 
fallacy of subdivision of, by horns, 88- 
91 ; lighter colour of females and young, 
91 ; dependence of, on water, 91 ; 
quicker response of, to sense of smell 
than to that of sight, 91-93. 

Bugs in Africa, 352. 

Bushbuck shooting, 240-241. 

Bushcraft, superiority of Africans over 
white men in, 209. 

Butterflies, African, 351. 

Camping, practical suggestions on, 295- 

308. 
Canoe, the native African, 103-104, 106. 
Caterpillars, opportunity for study of, 

351- 
Chambesi River, plague of tsetse flies on 

the, 341. 
Children, viewpoint of savages regarding, 

208-209. 
Chupaties, receipt for making, 297-298. 
Clerk, erudition of a Mganda, 223-224. 
Clothing for life in the wilds, 307-309. 
Courtesy of natives toward white men, 

222. 
Cox, Captain, 259-260. 
Crocodiles at Fajao, 108-109. 
Crow, the Indian, 265. 

Dinkas, fish-spearing by, 109. 

Dirre Daua road, experiences on the, 290- 

292. 
Distance, vagueness of native Africans as 

to, 2 1 1-2 14. 

Ears of elephants, the fold of, 276-277. 

East Africa, hunting in, 2 ; lack of 
trackers in, 19; rhinoceros hunting in, 
32 ; pleasures of hunting in high- 
lands of, 257, 258. 



377 



378 



INDEX 



Elephant hunting, fascination of, i ; 
restrictions on modern, 1-2 ; locations 
for, 2-3 ; in Southern Lado Enclave, 
46 ff.; in the Lugware country, 171 
ff. ; weight of tusks compared with 
size of spoor in, 178, 270-272. 

Elephant meat as food, 184. 

Family relations of native Africans, 

208-209. 
Field article on the honey-guide, 268. 
Fire, doubtful theory of wild animals' 

fear of, 33-34- 
Fires, injuries to elephant from, 279. 
Fishing, native Africans' method of, 

107-110. 
Fish-spearing by Dinkas, 109. 
Flies, discussion of African, 338-344. 
Fredericks, Captain, 164, 318. 
Frock coats for savages, 75. 
Froghoppers, 352. 

Game animals, compared as to danger in 
hunting, 81-84; fallacy of theory of 
protective colouration of, 278, 356. 

"Game of East Africa," cited, 82, 129, 
229, 295. 

Gessi, Mt., hunting about, 183-184. 

Gordon, Captain, at Embu, 142-143. 

Guinea worm, the, 344. 

Halkett, Captain Craigie, 197. 

Hart, Captain R. S., 46, 52-53, 77, 121- 

122, 125, 171, 186, 226. 
Hippopotamus, adventure with, on the 

Nile, 62-63. 
Holster, construction of a revolving, 298- 

299. 
Honey-guide, the, 263-269. 
Horns, criticism of classification of 

buffalo by the, 88-91. 
Husseni, Swahili cook, 119, 150, 151, 

202-203. 

Impala, characteristics of the, 262. 

Insects, notes on African, 336 ff. ; sug- 
gested change in method of classifica- 
tion, 352-355; mimicry and pro- 
tective colouration in, 356. 

Ithanga Mountains, rhinoceros in region 
of, 39-43. 

Jackson, F. J., governor of Uganda, on 

the tsetse fly, 340. 

Kao, town of, 252-253. 
Karori, Kiyuyu chief, 248-250. 



Kinangop, bongo hunting on, 3255. 
King, H., entomologist, 345. 
Kirongozi, Lugware guide, 190-191. 
Kisii warrior, adventure with a, 312-315, 
Kongoni, lions and, at Ndurugu, 140; 

experiences in shooting, 232-234. 
Koshi River, 95. 

Lado, elephant hunting in the, 1 18-126. 

Lanterns, home-made, 304-305. 

Leopard, comparative risks of hunting, 
81 ; incident of meeting a, near 
Hargeisa, 180; carrying qualities of 
sound made by, 261-262. 

License for shooting elephant, i. 

Lion, comparative risks of hunting, 81, 
82-83 ; impressions on first meeting 
a, 127; man-eating, 128-134; en- 
counter with and injury from, at 
Simba station, 134-139; other ad- 
ventures with, 140 ff. 

Lugware, timidity of the, with elephant, 
48; other characteristics of, 1 71-175; 
elephant hunting in country of, 171 ff. 

Lyell, M. D. D., 129. 

Madi, timidity of, with elephant, 48, 65- 

68; experience in shooting elephant 

among, 68-71. 
Maliko, Baganda porter, 176, 177, 191, 

193-196. 
Man-eating lions, 128-134. 
Mangazi Valley, tsetse flies in the, 341. 
Mantis, mimicry in, 360-361. 
Matches, hints concerning, 308. 
Matola, orderly, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 2,2,. 
Mbelazoni, town of, 254. 
Measurements of elephants and their 

tusks, 270-275. 
Meat, of elephants, 184; methods of 

making tender, 299. 
Meru country, elephant hunting in the, 2. 
Mimicry in colouration of insects, 356 ff. 
Morsitans group of tsetse flies, 339, 341, 

342. _ 
Mosquitoes, 343. 
Mostyn, Captain, 37, 38. 
Moths, 351. 
Mtundu, a measurement of distance in 

Awemba country, 214. 

Ndurugu, lions at, 140. 
Net, use of, in fishing, 109-110. 
Neumann, A. H., 2. 

Nguzeru, experiences in climbing peak of, 
242-248. 



INDEX 



379 



Nile River, hunting experiences along the, 
46 ff . ; native method of fording, 59 ; 
experiences in trekking down bank of, 
in wet season, 94 ff. 

Nyasaland, native trackers in, 20; 
rhinoceros hunting in, 33 ; man-eating 
lions in, 128; peculiarities of native 
servants in, 153-155; life of a head 
man in, 157. 

Olivier, Captain, 3. 
Ongwech, Chief, 64. 
Orgobi, the man-leopard, 293. 
Ostrich eggs, 239. 

Palpalis group of tsetse flies, 339, 341, 342. 

Partridge near Mt. Kenya, 261. 

Paths, blocking the, 300. 

Pazo ointment for veldt sores, 306. 

Pigmy bee, the, 344. 

Pigs seen in Ngong forest, 231-232. 

Protective colouration, merely accidental 
in larger animals, 278, 356; and mimi- 
cry, in insects, 356-375- 

Proverbs, native African, 281-283. 

Rafts, construction of, 98-100. 

Reedbuck, experience in shooting, 239- 
240. 

Rhinoceros, hunting the, 32 ff . ; sores 
on, 43-44- 

Rhodesia, native trackers in, 20; rhi- 
noceros hunting in, 33. 

Rinderpest, epidemic of, 88. 

Rivers, African, 94 ff. 

Roan, blunting of the horns by, 91. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 81. 

Rose-chaffer, mimicry in colouration of 
bees by the, 366. 

Rudolph, Lake, hunting in country 
about, 2. 

Sayings of Africans, 280-285. 

Seasons, dry and wet, in tropical Africa, 

94- 

Selous, F. C, on danger connected with 
shooting buffalo, 86; on protective 
colouration, 278; correspondence of, 
on the tsetse fly, 339-340. 

Serval cats, 238. 

Servants, vagaries of native African, 
153 ff. ; Bantu, 155, 158, 165; strange 
mistakes made by, 1 59-1 61 ; Central 
African, 160-161; Somali, 161-165; 
Swahili, 165-166; thieving by, 166- 
168; happy-go-lucky qualities of, 
205 ff . ; improvidence of, 207-208. 



Sharp, Sir Alfred, correspondence be- 
tween Selous and, on the tsetse fly, 
339-340. 

Simba station, lion at, 134. 

Skin, ways of softening, 300. 

Sleeping-sickness flies, 338 ff. 

Smell, response of animals to sense of, 91- 

93- 

Somali language, 162-163. 

Somaliland, grasping character of natives 
of, 24-25; lion-hunting in, 127; 
natives of, as servants, 1 61-165; high 
esteem of natives for their country, 163. 

Sores, on rhinoceros, 43-44; on ele- 
phants from burns, 279; veldt, 306. 

Spoor, deductions as to tusks and size of 
elephant from, 178, 270 ff. 

Stephanie, Lake, hunting in country 
about, 2. 

Swahili, as servants, 165-166 ; proverbs 
of the, 281-283. 

Swamps, African, 94 ff., 114-115. 

Tana River, canoeing on the, 253-254. 
Taylor, Rev. W. E., collection of Swahili 

proverbs by, 281. 
Tengeneza, gun-bearer, 84-86, 149. 
Thievery of native servants, 166-168; 

measures of protection against, 295- 

296. 
Time, vague ideas of Africans as to, 211. 
Tinned goods, care of, 302-303. 
Trackers, native, in elephant hunting, 

18 ff. ; specialisation by, 45, 
Tsetse fly, the, 338-343- 
Tusks, weight of, compared with size of 

spoor, 178, 270-272; remarks on 

measurement of, 273 ff. 

Uganda, absence of rhinoceros from, 44. 

Veldt sore, the, 306. 

Victoria Nile, fishing on the, 108. 

Wadelai, a camp at, 62. 

Wart hogs, 233, 234-235 ; characteristics 

of, 236-238. 
Wasps, African, 345-346. 
Wati, Mt., site of Belgian camp at, 184. 
Werewolf behefs among Africans, 293- 

294. 
Witu and its Sultan, 251-252. 

Yeast made from native spirits, 297. 

Zomba, dinner party in, 161. 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



New Illustrated Books of Travel, Adventure, and Description 

Highways and Byways from the St. Law- 
rence to Virginia 

By CLIFTON JOHNSON. 
With many illustrations made from photographs taken by the 

author. 

Decorated cloth, 8vo. $1 .50 net 

As in the case of the other volumes in this series Mr. Johnson deals 
here primarily with country life — especially that which is typical 
and picturesque. To the traveler no life is more interesting and 
yet there is none with which it is so difficult to get into close 
and unconventional contact. Ordinarily only casual glimpses 
are caught. For this reason Mr. Johnson has wandered much 
in rural byways and lodged most of the time in village hotels or 
in rustic homes. His trips have taken him to many characteris- 
tic and famous regions; but always both in text and pictures he 
has tried to show actual life and nature and to convey some of 
the pleasure he experienced in his intimate acquaintances with 
the people. There are notes giving valuable information con- 
cerning automobile routes and other facts of interest to tourists 
in general. 

A Woman Rice Planter 

By PATIENCE PENNINGTON. 

With an Introduction by Owen Wister and many illustrations by 
Alice R. Huger Smith. 

Decorated cloth, 8vo. Preparing 

Here are detailed the actual experiences of a woman rice planter on 
her own account, as the actual manager of two large plantations 
in South Carolina. The book is all the more interesting and 
instructive because it is told in a charmingly simple manner, 
and without a trace of self-consciousness or self-assertion. In- 
dependently of the information it conveys it has attraction for 
every reader by reason of that manner and as a revelation of a 
feminine character in which are manifested tender susceptibility 
and womanly sympathy no less than rugged courage in assum- 
ing an arduous task and in overcoming heavy practical obstacles. 
The narrative of the planter's life, with its many_ responsibilities, 
the risks, the vexations and the cares involved in her ventures, 
the sagacity, skill and indomitable persistency with which she 
pursued her way, makes reading always interesting and fre- 
quently valuable for its insight into a remarkable Southern home. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



OCT 2 1913 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 892 886 5 



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